20+ Fun Facts About “Art Nouveau” Genius Antoni Gaudí — An Architectural Revolutionary

It is practically impossible to imagine the Barcelona of today without the creations of the architect Antoni Gaudí. His works seem to have come out of the pages of the most fanciful fairy tales. The Sagrada Familia, under construction for 138 years, has become a true symbol of this Spanish city. The life of this architectural genius was difficult: losses, failures and illnesses were recurring themes. However, his dedication to the job kept him strong.

There are many rumors about Gaudí’s quirks. And we, from awesome.club, we have carefully studied the brilliant architect and are ready to share with you the most interesting facts about the life of one of the brightest representatives of modern architecture. Check out!

The architect was born in 1852, he was the fifth child of Francesc Gaudí i Serra and Antònia Cornet i Bertran. Of his brothers and sisters, none lived past the age of 35, and two died in infancy. These tragedies gave rise to rumors that a terrible curse haunted the family🇧🇷 However, Antoni himself lived to be 73, leaving a rich legacy that changed Barcelona forever. Antoni had a difficult childhood due to rheumatism, so instead of playing with his peers, he spent a lot of time looking at the Mediterranean, the clouds in the sky, the grass swaying in the wind – Gaudí didn’t miss a single detail. Sometimes his illness left him so weak as to not being able to walk alone and needing to ride a donkey. Both his father and mother came from blacksmith families. As they lived in the wine region, in Tarragona, the men of the future architect’s family manufactured equipment for the region’s winemakers. Later, Gaudí declared several times that boilers and coils influenced him since childhood to think in three dimensions. The influence of spiral and curvilinear forms is a striking feature of his works.

Antoni was unsuccessful in his first attempt to enter the Faculty of Architecture. The young man had to pass 3 exams: French, drawing geometric figures and drawing of buildings with watercolors🇧🇷 Surprisingly, the idealist of the Sagrada Familia failed the last test. Gaudí was an active attender of cultural events in Barcelona: literary, philosophical, scientific meetings – everything generated curiosity in his enthusiastic mind. The young man liked to walk a lot, because the beauty of Catalonia inspired him. It took the famous architect 5 years of hard work to realize his dream and enter the Provincial School of Architects. In 1878, aged 25, Gaudí earned his coveted diploma and became a professional urban planner. While studying architecture, Gaudí performed several other activities. In addition to working as a draftsman for experienced architects such as Emili Sala Cortés and Francisco de Paula del Villar y Lozano, he simultaneously studied handicrafts, made small works such as fences, pavilions and posts, designed furniture and participated, without success, in design competitions and exhibitions. architectural.

In his youth, Gaudí was considered a true blue-eyed dandy. He wore expensive suits, kid gloves and silk top hats, had a collection of handkerchiefs and was a regular spectator of theater and opera shows. With the first scholarships received at the university, bought a gold watch, said to be a family heirloom, a sort of passport to be accepted into high society in Barcelona. However, with regard to the feet, not everything was so simple. Guadí couldn’t wear new shoes and her brother, before he passed away, was the one who softened them up. After his death, the architect’s students were responsible for helping him in this matter and, for that, they used a hammer. The personality of this architectural genius was naturally kind and full of energy, although he hid behind a ruthless demeanor. Despite the torrid romances, his personal life was not the happiest. After some rejections, he decided to dedicate himself entirely to his greatest passion – architecture. In 1883, Gaudí’s first major project began to come to fruition — Casa Vicens, marking the beginning of the style. art nouveau🇧🇷 He literally lived on the construction site and supervised the entire process, forcing the workers to redo everything he didn’t like: parts already completed were demolished.

The year 1883 was an excellent one for the architect’s career. He met Eusebi Güell, who became a great friend and sponsor of Gaudí’s works. It was at that moment that money and talent came together to reshape Catalonia. The brilliant architect was a born perfectionist and didn’t make trivial decisions regarding his works (something evident in his work). It is said that during the construction of a mosaic bench in Park Güell, Gaudí asked the workers to sit on the fresh cement with their pants down, trying to make the bench as comfortable as possible.🇧🇷

Gaudí saw the world differently, literally and figuratively. He had problems vision: hyperopia in one eye and myopia in the other. However, he didn’t like and didn’t wear glasses either, because, according to himself, the Greeks didn’t wear them. used and they were excellent builders. After being designated the architect of the Sagrada Familia, he worked on other smaller works, such as the Episcopal Palace of Astorga, with neo-Gothic features, Palace Güell, Casa Calvet and the Crypt of Colonia Güell. In addition to the stunning Casa Batlló (known as Casa dos Ossos) and Casa Milà (The Quarry), which became the personification of the war waged by Gaudí against straight lines. Casa Milà’s design was innovative for its time. Gaudí dreamed of building several ramps in the building, so residents could enter the property, driving their cars to apartments, even on the upper floors. However, the idea was vetoed by the client, and the ramps were transformed into the first underground parking lot.

Initially, Gaudí did not participate in the construction project of the Sagrada Familia, he only made changes to Francisco Villar’s project. However, due to his creative personality, the project underwent many changes, to which he devoted more than four decades, turning down lucrative contracts in Paris and New York. In the end, what we see today is nothing like the initial design of a neo-Gothic cross-shaped basilica as originally planned. Gaudí built the model of the Sagrada Familia cathedral using suspended sandbags. Only years later did researchers draw lines connecting the sandbags and build a three-dimensional model of the building. What do you think of this way of creating a 3D model, used at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries?

The geometric shapes of the temple’s columns and vaults were inspired by nature. When looking closely at the vault, which is located in the inner part of the basilica’s corridor, one notices that it resembles sunlight passing through trees. On the Nativity facade, more than 100 species of plants and animals have been carved in detail. All statues on the front of the temple are life-size. To create them, Gaudí decided to make molds of people, but the idea did not work out very well. So he decided to look for volunteers who would agree to pose for the sculptor Llorenç Matamala i Piñol. Thus, the watchman at the cathedral was transformed into Judas, the grandson of one of the workers, into the baby Jesus and the plasterer into David. The basilica’s unique architecture generates many contradictory associations, ranging from a termite’s nest to an evil witch’s gingerbread house or a petrified forest. George Orwell described the site as “one of the most disgusting buildings in the world”. Salvador Dalí, in turn, noted the impressive beauty and “edible” appearance of the cathedral.

Gaudí was a radical vegetarian. Over time, his lifestyle became more and more ascetic. For lunch, he could only have a few lettuce leaves dipped in milk. And it nearly killed him from malnutrition. The architect only went back to eating normally when a priest reminded him of his mission to build the Sagrada Familia. Gaudí believed that water was the best food. One of his strange quirks was the habit of carry a raw egg in your pants pocket🇧🇷 Gaudí admired its perfect shape and the phenomenal resistance of its shell. In the last years of his life, Antoni Gaudí practically lived on the construction site, leaving only in search of sponsors. In June 1926, Gaudí was run over by a tram, and the taxi drivers refused to take him to the emergency room, as they did not recognize the architect. Already in the hospital, Antoni Gaudí realized that his life time was numbered. He died two days after the accident, leaving a legacy that continues to attract millions of tourists from all over the world to Barcelona.

What is your favorite work by Antoni Gaudí? Have you ever visited the capital of Catalonia? Tell us in the comments section.