Holy Water Font or Basin Made With Shell, Colonia Guell's Crypt, Barcelona, Spain

Stationary fonts like this are placed at the entrance to churches as you all know but I am sure you never saw a holy water font made with an enormous shell nor have you seen perhaps such wonderful ironwork pedicle. Nothing is common and ordinary when you enter Gaudi's crypt at Colonia Guell. The place has columns, altar, stain glass and pews as any other church but you have to be prepared to digest the degree of variation of the holy elements. A church was supposed to be on top of the crypt, as the latter was part of a bigger project which started in 1908. In 1917 one year after Gaudi's art patron and friend, Eusebi Guell, died, the work was finally stopped. As you can guess foundations are very solid. Columns are made of basaltic rock and different kinds of bricks. The ceiling is vaulted in the most traditional gothic style. Every arch, every pillar, was precisely calculated with small sacks full of pellets which were tied to the ceiling in Gaudi's workshop by means of small pieces of cloth and string making up what is known as a stereostatic model. The weight of every sack was proportional to the load every arch element had to hold. But everything here is hard to imagine without visiting Colonia Güell of course. By the way, there were some posts in Barcelona Photoblog some time ago that might help: Caprice Supreme of Architecture, Modernist Door and Mosaic, Futurist Windows and Stained Glass

The Bat in Colonia Guell At The Secretary's House

This is a bat, a symbol that was part of Güell family's coat of arms, and on top the omnipresent pigeon, that seems to be some sort of evil partner watching me from his master's shoulder, sorry, wings. She may not harm anyone but she did cover the historic figure with all her glorious s***. The house, belonged to Colonia Guell's secretary (remember Colonia Guell was an industrial estate in Santa Coloma de Cervelló, near Barcelona). It was founded by Eusebi Güell i Bacigalupi in 1890. Güell was a wealthy man and his wife Isabel López Bru, was the daughter of Antoni López i López, first Marques of Comillas who was also a very rich man. Güell ran important textile factories in Barcelona but those were hard times for the sector. To be competitive, especially with the British industry, workers had to produce more for the same money or less. So people started to get organized and to claim for their rights and Güell decided to build a better place out of the city where workers could live around the factory and integrate themselves more in the company. He managed to do so for some time but trade unions and their claims arrived to Colonia Güell in the end.

Guell Crypt: Caprice Supreme of Architecture

A supreme caprice of architecture: the art nouveau or modernist ceiling at the entrance to the crypt in Colonia Guell by Antoni Gaudi, who had been commissioned by Eusebi Güell the prosperous catalan businessman. Robert Hughes, art critic for Time, recently said he hates Sagrada Familia but loves Colonia Guell, the place where the crypt is. Of course we can object to that if we get carried out by the grandeur of the cathedral. Besides, experts see what we cannot see, no wonder they've been studying for years, although what we understand by art is a concept of man and not a law of nature so no one has the final truth. Anyway, it was about time someone cast a shadow of doubt over stereotypes concerning our city. I suggest you read the book by Robert Hughes: Barcelona. Here is a previous post about the Crypt at Guell Colony.

Singers Rehearsing at Colonia Guell, Barcelona

The day we visited Colonia Guell in the outskirts of Barcelona it was a complete surprise to come across these singers rehearsing in front of the entrance to the crypt (the small church built by Gaudi). They were singing traditional Catalan songs and were supposed to walk towards the center of the small town to enter by surprise in bars to entertain clients.

Places I stumbled upon today: Running the Numbers

Colonia Guell: Windows - A Futurist Vista

These windows with futurist design at the crypt in Colonia Guell, Barcelona are more credible in a manga film, an avant-garde video game or a scifi illustration than drawn from the mind of a visionary architect in the XIX century. Gaudi in his constant search for perfection, beauty, divine inspiration and architectural challenges came out with these sort of armored skylights to absorb as much natural light as possible. The impossible lines of the building, the innovative stained glass work inspired in natural themes, the odd shape of the windows confirm the wonderful, almost supernatural, futurist vista of Gaudian architecture.

Catalan Art Nouveau: Modernist House at Colonia Guell

We return to architecture. Weird, innovative, futuristic art nouveau architecture. This is not precisely the house of my dreams although I would like to have one of my own with my own garden, my own garage and my own privacy.

Scattered across the neighborhood in the heart of old Colonia Güell, the textile industrial community run by Gaudi's mentor Eusebi Güell, there are modernist houses like this who belonged in most cases to distinguished citizens in the village. Although the workers' houses aren't that bad either.

I guess living in this place which is still inhabited must be quite an advantage since it must be protected by official institutions that want to preserve Catalan cultural patrimony. Real estate business has gone wild nowadays in Spain and particularly in Barcelona so finding a tiny, take-it-or-leave-it apartment is an adventure and a life term bleeding contract.

Having a lot with a brick house like the one in the picture would imply selling your soul to the devil.

Modernist Door and Mosaic at Crypt in Colonia Guell

So this is the entrance to the crypt in Colonia Guell, the textile complex property of Eusebi Güell. The gates to the sanctuary: a big metal door topped by an elaborate mosaic created using the trencadis technique, that consists of breaking tiles in small shards to compose an image which in this case portraits the Holy Trinity. I gave you enough detail yesterday so if you came here directly check previous post. Both Eusebio Güell and Gaudi were religious men who also had a passion for architecture, in different ways of course. In the case of the Catalan empresario it was more the will to immortalize his name and legacy. As the mosaic is the most remarkable piece in this composition I will show you a detail too.

Colonia Guell, Barcelona: Art Nouveau Stained Glass Window

Colonia Guell, was a textile community which was established in 1890 along river Llobregat like many other such water-powered industries. There was an important recession from 1885 to 1890 in this sector. Eusebi Güell, an important Catalan businessman who commisioned Gaudi many of his works (remember Park Guell), had to move his factory from Sants to his lands near the city, the municipality of Santa Coloma de Cervelló at present. In 1880 there were important steam-powered factories near Barcelona, like Can Batlló in Les Corts or La España Industrial and Vapor Güell in Sants that were slowly declining. Antoni Gaudi had started to build a church for all the community inhabitants in Eusebi's estate but it finally ended up as a mere crypt (but what a crypt!) due to the financial problems of his mentor in the middle of this economic crisis. The entrance to the crypt in Colonia Güell is quite similar to the impossible inclined column pattern imitating the aerial roots of trees in Sagrada Familia, in fact this small sanctuary served as a small scaled model for the cathedral. I took this interior picture of the stained glass windows, featuring a cross but also suggesting a big flower as elements of nature were a leitmotif in all of Gaudi's work. The image is taken in a hurry as opening hours are limited due to Mass service. So I only had 10 minutes to madly rush along the oval temple and then run up the external staircase to the unfinished part of the building where the church was supposed to be (there is only a small belfry). I was the last one to come out of the ugly fenced perimeter which makes it impossible to take a decent full scene shot. More to come tomorrow.