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decorations found throughout the park were mostly executed by Josep Maria
Jujol, who assisted on several of Gaudí’s projects.
There are terrific views from the self-service
café
, which operates from one of
the caverns adjoining the main terrace, but to escape the milling crowds you’ll
need to climb away from here, up into the wooded, landscaped gardens. At the
very highest point – follow signs for “
Turó de les Tres Creus
” – on the spot
where Gaudí had planned to place a chapel, three stone crosses top a stepped
tumulus. It’s from here that a 360-degree city panorama unfolds in all its glory.
At the main entrance on c/Olot, the fomer porter’s lodge – and never can a
porter have had more whimsical lodgings – is now the
Centre d’Interpretació
(Tues–Sun 11am–3pm; €2.30, combined ticket with City History Museum €6;
T
932 856 899,
W
www.museuhistoria.bcn.cat), offering a rather perfunctory intro-
duction to the park’s history, design and building methods used. Far better is the
Casa Museu Gaudí
(daily: April–Sept 10am–8pm; Oct–March 10am–6pm; €4;
T
932 193 811,
W www.casamuseugaudi.org), a little way inside the park, designed
and built in 1904 by one of Gaudí’s other collaborators, Francesc Berenguer, and
in which Gaudí was persuaded to live until he left to camp out at the Sagrada
Família for good. Gaudí’s ascetic study and bedroom have been kept much as they
were in his day – there’s an inkling of his personality in the displayed religious texts
and pictures, along with a silver coffee cup and his death mask, made at the Sant
Pau hospital where he died.Other rooms display a diverting collection of furniture
he designed for other projects – a typical mixture of wild originality and brilliant
engineering, as well as plans and objects relating to the park and to Gaudí’s life.
Park practicalities
If you have a choice, it’s probably best to visit Parc Güell during the week, as
weekends can be very busy indeed.The park straddles a steep hill and however
you get there will involve an ascent on foot of some kind to reach the main
section (see colour map 7 for approaches).The most direct route is on
bus #24
from Plaça de Catalunya, Passeig de Gràcia or c/Gran de Grácia, which drops
you on Carretera del Carmel at the eastern side gate by the car park. From
o
Vallcarca you have to walk a few hundred metres down Avinguda de
l’Hospital Militar until you see the mechanical escalators on your left, ascending
Baixada de la Glória. Follow these – and the short sections of stepped path in
between – right to the western-side park entrance (15min), from where you
wind down a path to the main terrace.
Walking from Gràcia
(and
o
Lesseps),
turn right alongTravessera de Dalt and then left up steep c/Larrard, which leads
straight to the main entrance of the park on c/Olot (10min).The
Bus Turístic
stops at the bottom end of c/Larrard on c/la Mare de Deu de la Salut.
You’ll have to walk back down c/Larrard to Travessera de Dalt for bus or
metro connections back to the city, though
taxis
do hang about the main gates
on c/Olot. There’s a
café
with terrace seats in the park, while Carrer Larrard
has several other little cafés, if you want to refuel on your way up or down, as
well as a mini-market for picnic supplies.
Parc de la Creueta del Coll
There couldn’t be a greater contrast with Parc Güell than Horta’s
Parc de la
Creueta del Coll
(daily 10am–dusk; free), a
nou urbanisme
development by
Olympic architects Martorell and Mackay, that was laid out on the site of an old
THE NORTHERN SUBURBS
|
Parc de la Creueta del
Coll