Barcelona Guide
The northern suburbs
Pavellons Güell
Address: Avinguda Pedralbes, a block east of the Palau Reial gardens
Opening time: Guided tours Mon, Fri, Sat & Sun at 10.15am & 12.15pm in English, plus 11.15am & 1.15pm in Spanish/Catalan
Price: €5
Telephone: 933 177 652
Website: www.rutadelmodernisme.com
As an early test of his capabilities, Antoni Gaudí was asked by his patron, Eusebi Güell, to rework the entrance, gatehouse and stables of the Güell summer residence, the remarkable Pavellons Güellon a large working estate which was sited well away from the filth and unruly mobs of downtown Barcelona. The summer house itself was later given to the royal family, and rebuilt as the Palau Reial, but the brick-and-tile stables and outbuildings survive as Gaudí created them, frothy, whimsical affairs with more than a Moorish touch to them. The trencadís (broken tile mosaics) on the minarets were Gaudí's first experiments with the form.
However, it's the gateway that's the most famous element. An extraordinary winged dragon made of twisted iron snarls at the passers-by, its razor-toothed jaws spread wide in a fearsome roar. This slavering beast is not the vanquished dragon of Sant Jordi (St George), the Catalan patron saint, but the one that appears in the Labours of Hercules myth, a familiar Catalan theme in the nineteenth century. Gaudí's design was based on a work by the Catalan renaissance poet Jacint Verdaguer, a friend of the Güell family, who had reworked the myth in his epic poem, L'Atlàntida – thus, the dragon guarding golden apples in the Gardens of Hesperides is here protecting instead an orange tree (considered a more Catalan fruit). Backing up to pose for a photograph suddenly doesn't seem like such a good idea. During the week you can't go any further than the gate, but it's well worth coinciding with the guided visits, especially to see inside Gaudí's innovative stables, now used as a library by the university's historical architecture department.