A Short History of Park Guell
One of Gaudi’s best friends and patron, Eusebi Guell, commissioned Gaudi to design many buildings.
Their most famous collaboration was the lush Park Guell, created as the entry and park grounds for an exclusive, gated housing development for 60 private villas.
This housing development was unsuccessful, as the park was far from town then, and only two houses of the proposed 60 were sold.
One of those two houses was Gaudi’s Torre Rosa, built by Francesc Berenguer. It was in this house where Gaudi lived the last 20 years of his life from 1906 to 1926, and today it houses the Gaudi Museum.
Work at the park commenced in 1900 and lasted until 1914. After this date, Gaudi worked solely on the Sagrada Familia and took no other commissions.
The Park Guell became municipal property in 1923.
In 1963, Gaudi’s house was converted into the Gaudi Museum.
In 1984, Park Guell became a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with other Gaudi works.