Park Guell is a large park outside the city center of Barcelona, Spain. The majority of the park is green space which is free to the public but the most famous part of the park called the monumental zone requires a ticket and access is limited to 400 people per half hour. The entire complex was intended to be a garden city with the monumental zone being the community area. Eusebi Guell was the project developer and Antoni Gaudi was the architect.

Entrance into the monumental zone is between two buildings. These two buildings were intended as the formal entrance for visitors into the city. I think of it as the entrance to a modern day gated community. The building on the right is known as Casa del Guarda (the guard house). This house is shown in the following photos.

The building to the left of the entrance gate is known as the porter’s lodge and was intended to receive visitors into the estate. The roofs of both buildings are similar but this building gave me the impression of a small castle with addition of the tower or steeple.

After passing through the entrance gate, the area opens up into a courtyard with mosaic tiled walls with tops resembling a crown. The second photo was taken through the window of Casa del Guarda.

Near the top of the stair is the landmark of the park which is a fountain known as the friendly dragon. This mosaic creation reminded my more of a gecko lizard than a dragon.

At the top of the stairs is the Hypostyle Pavilion. This open air area uses columns to support small domes. The ceiling of the pavilion is covered in white mosaic tile with a colored tiled medallion in the center of the space.

On the roof of the Hypostyle Pavilion is an open area known as the Nature Square. The outside of the square is defined by a colorful mosaic tiled scalloped wall with a white mosaic tiled seating bench.

In the back of the monumental zone is a rock covered walkway area with leaning walls and support columns.

Completely surrounding the monumental zone is a rock wall with a mosaic tile capping the top of the wall. Several places along the wall are mosaic medallions with the name of the complex.

The Dust on My Shoes

Going to Park Guell was a lot of fun! It felt like being in a real life fairy tale story. My first impression of the buildings at the entrance was that they resembled gingerbread houses with rock walls for the gingerbread and mosaic tiles for the frosting.

Gaudi’s design style was in full display with all of the colorful broken ceramic tiles being used as decoration. It also felt strange being in a complex with almost no straight lines. The houses are round, the roofs are curved, the walls of the covered walkway are leaning and the tiled seating area on the upper terrace are scalloped and wavy. Everything is rounded with almost no corners.

One of my favorite things that I like about traveling is that I get to see places that are drastically different from those around me. I think it is good to see new concepts, new styles and new ideas.

Seeing places like the Park Guell inspire me! These places help me to use my imagination and make me a more creative person!

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