exclusive gift shop
 


All images are clickable


JOIN OUR CLUB!!!
Register here as a new member if you want to be advised by e-mail on new updates, and take your FREE WELCOME GIFTS.

The mezzanine is developed to each side of the main stairway. This is where, initially, Güell's office, the administrative office, the archive, the library and a small waiting or resting room were located. From here, the escalera de honor (guest & family stairway), which extends to the planta noble (first floor), begins. The rooms on this floor are distributed around a hall which reaches the building's full height, in the form of a parabolic dome with an interior covering of hexagonal plates, and openings which allow light to enter.

The escalera de honor flows into the first corridor, where four distinct spaces can be seen: the antechamber, the hall access room, the visitor's room and the dressing room. To light the first three, Gaudí developed an accurate light filtration system, consisting of polished gray marble columns from Garraf and the typical main floor gallery.

The gallery doesn't occupy the entire width of the facade because Gaudí wanted to soften the border with the neighboring facade, and at the same time, he also differentiated the service entrance from the main area. This part, with no gallery, corresponds to the dressing room.

Through the access room one enters the hall-the place where Güell held literary and artistic meetings, parties and concerts. A small chapel-oratory is hidden inside a closet with the twelve apostles drawn on its doors, and at the left a small organ was used by Mr. Güell's oldest daughter. The system that Gaudí used for its construction is interesting, because the air escape tubes reach to two floors above, thus achieving a great acoustic effect.

Beside the rear facade were the dining room and the sala de confianza (a room for close friends of the family), separated by a carved wood lattice, and a billiards room, from which one can access the block's interior patio. In the dining room, there is a chimney designed by Oliveras and, behind it, there is a pantry with a freight elevator that led to the kitchen, located on the last floor.

Above the planta noble, there is a gallery next to the sitting room, the bedrooms, the dressing rooms, the toilets and the bathrooms for the tenants-that is, for the Güell family, since they moved there to live until don Eusebi moved to Park Güell in 1906. The decoration of the bedrooms corresponds to the distribution of columns and arches on the planta noble, except in Eusebi Güell's bedroom, where they are decorated with forged iron in shapes of vegetables. From this room one can go out to a small balcony, covered with an canopy made of wood and iron, which faces the interior of the block of houses.

On the last floor, the attic, were the rooms for the servants, the laundry room and the kitchen, and it could be accessed by way of the service stairs. The elements that support this stairway are the very posts of the rails which, fitted, hang from a beam located on the next-to-last flight of stairs.

Following this stairway, one reaches the roof, in the middle of which arises a 15-meter high cone, covered with glazed Marès stone. This is the continuation of the parabolic body that, along with four large parabolic openings, lights the main hall.

But the most surprising aspect of this roof are the 20 chimneys with different shapes, made of brick, plastered partition or covered with pieces of ceramic, which provided ventilation and smoke exhaust.



[ top | Life & Works | Homepage ]
 

sitemap