UB and Barcelona City Council agree to restore and open to the public the Güell Pavilions, a Gaudíʼs work

The Municipal Institute of Urban Landscape will develop complete restoration works, adapt its surroundings, open it to the public and organise touristic, cultural, educative and scientific activities. The total cost of restoration works is 900,000 euros. Works are going to begin before the end of the year and they will finish in 2016.

The Institute will fund restoration works with the resources it allocates to protect and improve urban landscape. When it will be opened to the public, the Institute will recoup its initial investment with the revenues produced by this new art nouveau attraction.

The Institute is committed to establish a system of daily tours in which visitors will receive information to understand better the importance of Gaudíʼs work and, particularly, the history of the Pavilions. During restoration works, the Institute will develop cultural activities in the enclosure in order to disseminate the style of Art Nouveau. The University of Barcelona and the Barcelona Knowledge Campus (BKC) will enjoy free use of the enclosure for institutional and scientific events.

A project to restore and develop a sustainable management of the Güell Pavilions

The enclosure of the Güell Pavilions, located at the Science Barcelona Knowledge Gateway Campus, includes two buildings designed by Antoni Gaudí —the porterʼs quarters and the stables and a riding area— and the garden delimited by the Avinguda de Pedralbes, the Carrer George Collins and the gardens of the Faculty of Law of UB. The enclosure also includes an exceptional wrought iron work at the entrance gate, where a dragon —Ladon, guard of the Garden of the Hesperides— has failed to stop Hercules reaching the golden apple, as in the poem LʼAtlàntida, by Jacint Verdaguer.

Restoration works aim to return Gaudíʼs architecture to its original state and aspect, to regenerate the garden, to substitute 1960ʼs opaque perimeter wall for a fence which allows seeing the ensemble from the street, to restore the two doors of the former estate, which belong to the UB and are located at the Avinguda Joan XXIII, at the entrance of the Faculty of Pharmacy, behind the Faculty of Biology.

A new attraction for citizens and tourists

The main objective of the project Jardí Gaudí (2014-2024) is to develop a sustainable tourist attraction that recoups the funds needed to complete restoration works and guarantees Güell Pavilionsʼ future maintenance.

The project helps the Barcelona City Council to achieve one of its goals: to decentralise tourism in the city in order to share the richness it produces among all neighbourhoods. The Tourism Plan of Les Corts neighbourhood considers that the Güell Pavilions are a new tourist attraction that will be visited by foreigners but also by citizens, as they are a treasure that has remained hidden to the city.

Currently, the Pavilions can only be visited at weekends by booking a guided-tour, thanks to an agreement signed between the UB and the Ruta del Modernisme. Some restoration works have already be done with funds provided by the BKC.

Another entrance will be opened at the corner of Avinguda de Pedralbes and Carrer George Collins. It will allow daily and steady flow visits. A small building will be built at this entrance in order to control the number of visitors. The money raised by ticket selling will fund restoration works, cultural activities, lectures, concerts and educational workshops. Barcelonaʼs citizens will enjoy free entrance; a way to guarantee it is being thought.

Besides walking around the enclosure, visitors will be provided with some information. A leaflet will describe them Gaudíʼs architecture, the symbols of the garden, the history of the area (Güell Estate, Avinguda Diagonal and Zona Universitària) and many other details (Mediterranean flora, birds that can be seen in the area, etc.). It will also encourage them to visit other Gaudíʼs works in the area: the Ruta de les Portes de Gaudí (Porta de Farmàcia, Portal Miralles, etc.). Moreover, a childrenʼs version will be also edited; it will include games and activities to bring kids closer to Gaudíʼs work.

Cultural activities, lectures, concerts and educational activities

The project Gaudí will include cultural activities —scientific and artistic—, organised together with Barcelonaʼs higher education and research centres, particularly with the University of Barcelona. Activities for schools will be also programmed and it is planned to organise outdoor concerts in summer.

From 2015, it is planned to carry out lectures on Art Nouveau at the former stables of the Pavilions, organised together with the research group on history of art GRACMON-UB. Lectures will be pronounced by prestigious Catalan lecturers and researchers, international experts who collaborate in the Art Nouveau European Route and will get us closer to other citiesʼ art nouveau, and young researchers who will present their most recent studies.

The project will also include other academic events of the University of Barcelona, but these activities will never interfere with the daily uses of the enclosure.

A historical art nouveau enclosure

The history of the enclosure goes back to 1883, when Eusebi Güell commissioned Gaudí to build the gatehouses of the Güell Estate. Fantasy and technical innovation came together in Gaudíʼs design. When you set your foot inside the estate, you find a garden; it is not a typical French garden in which Gaudí promoted the introduction of native species. The structure of both pavilions (the porterʼs headquarters and the stables) is composed by traditional architectural elements that Gaudí stylized.

When Eusebio Güell died, his family ceded the house and one part of the estate to build the Palau Reial de Pedralbes, so the pavilions were then out of the enclosure. In 1950, the UB purchased the lot where both pavilions are located. From 1968 to 2010, the pavilion built to be the stables hosted the Gaudí Chair. Last year, the Güell Pavilions were selected to be part of the programme Watch 2014, of the World Monuments Fund (WMF).

Related pieces of news:

The architect Arata Isozaki pronounces the inaugural lecture on the Gaudí 1st World Congress

World Monuments Fund has included the Güell Pavilions on the 2014 World Monuments Watch