Thursday’s Special

Winding: a twisting movement or course

synonyms: twist, turn, turning, bend, loop, curve, zigzag, convolution, meander, meandering, looping, serpentine, sinuous, snaking, snaky

Looking down on Nature Square and the undulating bench

Welcome to Park Güell, one of the major works of Gaudí in Barcelona. Access to the Monumental Zone of Park Güell is limited to 400 tickets every half hour. Which seems an awful lot of people on such a short time frame as you are not obliged to exit within half an hour and most likely explains why it is so busy! To avoid having to wait for several hours to enter the Monumental Zone it is best to purchase your timed tickets beforehand.

The Porter’s Lodge – Casa del Guarda
Snake’s head fountain
Decorative window
Decorative window
Mosaics on the bench

Eusebi Güell entrusted to Gaudí the plan to create an estate for well off families in a large property that Güell had purchased in the zone known as ‘bare mountain’, a location with magnificent views over the plain and the ocean.

Monumental Flight of Steps. Framed by two convex walls with merlons (crenellated parapet).
Dragon or Salamander
Dragon’s claw
Brightly coloured tile-shard mosaics

Only one sixth of the plot could be built on for residential use only. And in the beginning work progressed well, but the difficulty of transport to the plot made it nonviable and in 1914 Güell decided to stop the project.

Merlons
Parc Guell
Another decorative window
Trencardis decorative system for the roof
The undulating roof at the top of the Hypostyle Room

Upon the death of Güell the estate was offered to the Barcelona City Council who opened it as a public park in 1926. The UNESCO declared it a Cultural Heritage of Humanity site in 1984.

Hypostyle Room – the ceiling is formed of small domes in the Catalan vault technique. It was conceived as a covered space that could serve as a market for the estate.
Decorative window
Trencardis (tile-shard mosaic) roof of the now bookshop
Undulating bench
Portico of the Washerwoman

I think you might agree with me that this site definitely complies with pretty much all the meanings of winding.

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Heyjude

I have lived in the UK for most of my life, but when young I definitely had wanderlust and even ended up living in South Africa for several years which was a wonderful experience. I now look forward to a long and leisurely retirement doing what I like most - gardening, photography, walking and travelling.

25 thoughts on “Thursday’s Special”

  2. I have many similar photos from my trips to Parc Guell. I just have to get them off of my ‘dead’ laptop! That’s why I am carefully backing up these days…
    Best wishes, Pete. x

    1. Ah, yes it is always good to have a backup, but then you start to worry that the backup drive may get damaged and so need another backup… it can become never ending!

  4. What’s not to love about Park Guell, I’d go every day if I lived in Barcelona. I’ve always wondered what the plain would have looked like when the park was being created.

    1. I was hoping the park and gardens would be more interesting. Maybe they are in the summer months. A shame the whole development didn’t get completed, it would have been amazing.

  5. Pingback: THURSDAY’S SPECIAL: WINDING | Lost in Translation

  6. Thank you so much Jude. I was there many years ago when I did not own a camera. These are lovely, and they bring back some nice memories.

  10. I took my time getting here, but oh what a magnificent place. There is such incredible detail, and a whole new (to me) architectural language. Your photography, especially of detail is superb. I think I’ll have to visit myself.

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