Six buildings by Antoni Gaudí, together with the Gaudí Chair of the UPC, promote a second extension of the World Heritage declaration

Signing of the UNESCO protocol on June 25th at Gaudí’s Torre Bellesguard.

Six entities owning buildings designed by Antoni Gaudí signed a protocol of intentions on June 25th at Torre Bellesguard, with the aim of joining efforts to ensure that these works they manage achieve World Heritage status. This recognition by UNESCO of Gaudí’s creations was initiated in 1984 and received a first extension in 2005. This initiative seeks to have the entire body of work of the Catalan architect, who will be commemorated on the centenary of his death in 2026, declared a World Heritage site.

The six buildings leading the initiative are the Cathedral-Basilica of Santa Maria of Mallorca, Torre Bellesguard Gaudí and the Teresian College of Barcelona, El Capricho de Gaudí in Comillas, Cantabria; the Casa Botines Gaudí Museum in León and the Episcopal Palace of Gaudí in Astorga.

According to the protocol of intentions signed by the six entities, the advances in research, restoration, and improvement of these buildings, from 2005 to the present, have determined that they have acquired the necessary valuation to be inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. This action takes place in the context of the commemoration of the hundred years since Antoni Gaudí’s death in 2026. For this date, the start of the Gaudí Centenary 2026 program is planned, with activities related to heritage, art, culture, and education to honor Antoni Gaudí’s work, with special emphasis on the scientific understanding of Gaudí’s contributions.

The Gaudí Chair of the UPC, directed by Professor Galdric Santana, is a research and documentation center at the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB), whose mission is the conservation, dissemination, and study of an exceptional heritage surrounding Antoni Gaudí and the architecture and urbanism of the 19th and 20th centuries. Galdric Santana is also the curator of the Gaudí Centenary in 2026, along with Núria Poch.