Antoni Gaudí i Cornet ( , ; ; 25 June 1852 – 10 June 1926) was a Catalan architect and designer, widely known as the greatest exponent of Catalan Modernisme. . [Direct PDF download link (27kB). .] Gaudí's works have a style, with most located in Barcelona, including his magnum opus, the Sagrada Família church.
Gaudí's work was influenced by his passions in life: architecture, nature, and religion. He considered every detail of his creations and combined crafts such as ceramics, stained glass, wrought ironwork forging, and carpentry. He introduced new techniques in the treatment of materials, such as trencadís which used waste ceramic pieces.
Influenced by neo-Gothic art and Oriental techniques, Gaudí became part of the Modernista movement, which peaked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His work eventually transcended mainstream Modernisme, developing into a unique style inspired by natural forms. Gaudí rarely drew detailed plans, preferring to create three-dimensional scale models and mold the details as he conceived them.
Gaudí's work enjoys global admiration and ongoing study. His masterpiece, the still-incomplete Sagrada Família, is the most-visited monument in Spain. Between 1984 and 2005, seven of his works were declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Gaudí's Catholic faith intensified throughout his life, and religious imagery appears in many of his works. This earned him the nickname "God's Architect". His cause for canonisation was opened in the Archdiocese of Barcelona in 2003. Pope Francis authorised Gaudi's declaration as Venerable in April 2025.
Life
The beginning Gaudí was born on 25 June 1852 in Reus, or possibly Riudoms, to coppersmith Francesc Gaudí i Serra (1813–1906) and Antònia Cornet i Bertran (1819–1876). He was the youngest of five children, and far outlived the other two who survived to adulthood: Rosa (1844–1879) and Francesc (1851–1876). Gaudí's family originated in the Auvergne region in southern France. One of his ancestors, Joan Gaudí, a hawker, moved to Catalonia in the 17th century. Possible derivations of the Gaudí family name include Gaudy or Gaudin.
Gaudí's exact birthplace is uncertain, with scant supporting documents. Controversy has arisen as to whether he was born in Reus or Riudoms, two neighbouring municipalities of the Baix Camp region. Most of Gaudí's identification documents gave Reus as his birthplace. From 1915, Gaudí stated on various occasions that he was born in Riudoms, his paternal family's village; this alteration in his stated natal village may have stemmed from Gaudí's later displeasure with Reus. Gaudí was baptised in the church of in Reus the day after his birth under the name "Antoni Plàcid Guillem Gaudí i Cornet".
Young Gaudí suffered from poor health, including rheumatism, which may have contributed to his reticent and reserved character. These health concerns and the hygienist theories of Sebastian Kneipp contributed to Gaudí's early decision to adopt vegetarianism. His religious faith and strict vegetarianism led him to undertake lengthy and severe fasts. These fasts were often unhealthy and occasionally, as in 1894, led to life-threatening illness.
Schooling and later studies Gaudí attended a nursery school run by Francesc Berenguer, whose son, also called Francesc, later became one of Gaudí's main assistants. He enrolled in the Piarists school in Reus where he displayed artistic talent via drawings for a seminar called El Arlequín ('the Harlequin'). During this time, he worked as an apprentice in the Vapor Nou textile mill in Reus. In 1868, he moved to Barcelona to study teaching in the Convent del Carme. As an adolescent, Gaudí became interested in utopian socialism and, together with his fellow students Eduard Toda i Güell and Josep Ribera i Sans, planned a restoration of the Poblet Monastery that would have transformed it into a Utopian phalanstère.
Between 1875 and 1878, Gaudí completed his compulsory military service in the infantry regiment in Barcelona as a Military Administrator. Most of his service was spent on sick leave, enabling him to continue his studies. His poor health kept him from having to fight in the Third Carlist War, which lasted from 1872 to 1876. In 1876, Gaudí's mother died at age 57, and his brother Francesc, who had just graduated as a physician, died aged 25. During this time Gaudí studied architecture at the Llotja School and the Barcelona Higher School of Architecture, graduating in 1878. To finance his studies, Gaudí worked as a draughtsman for various architects and constructors such as Leandre Serrallach, Joan Martorell, Emili Sala Cortés, Francisco de Paula del Villar y Lozano and Josep Fontserè. In addition to his architecture classes, he studied French, history, economics, philosophy, and aesthetics. His grades were average and he occasionally failed courses. When handing him his degree, Elies Rogent, director of Barcelona Architecture School, said: "We have given this academic title either to a fool or a genius. Time will show." Gaudí, when receiving his degree, reportedly told his friend, the sculptor Llorenç Matamala, with his ironical sense of humour, "Llorenç, they're saying I'm an architect now." Time spent outdoors, particularly during summer stays in the Gaudí family home Mas de la Calderera, afforded Gaudí the opportunity to study nature. His interest in the natural world led him to join the Centre Excursionista de Catalunya in 1879, when he was 27. The organisation arranged expeditions to explore Catalonia and southern France, often on horseback or on foot, covering up to a day.
Adulthood and professional work
Gaudí's first projects were the lampposts he designed for the Plaça Reial in Barcelona, the unfinished Girossi newsstands, and the Cooperativa Obrera Mataronense (Workers' Cooperative of Mataró) building. He gained wider recognition for his first important commission, the Casa Vicens, and subsequently received more significant proposals. At the Paris World's Fair of 1878, Gaudí displayed a showcase he had produced for the glove manufacturer Comella. Its functional and aesthetic modernista design impressed Catalan entrepreneur Eusebi Güell, who then commissioned some of Gaudí's most outstanding work: the Bodegas Güell (wine cellars), the Güell pavilions, the Palau Güell (Güell palace), the Park Güell and the crypt of the church of the Colònia Güell. Gaudí also became a friend of Antonio López, 1st Marquess of Comillas, Güell's father-in-law, for whom he designed "El Capricho" in Comillas, Cantabria, Gaudí designed other buildings in Spain. Translated version of webpage .
In 1883 Gaudí was put in charge of the recently initiated project to build a Barcelona church called the (, or simply , ). Gaudí completely changed the initial design and imbued it with his own distinctive style. From 1915 until his death, he devoted himself entirely to this project. Given the number of commissions he began receiving, he had to rely on his team to work on multiple projects simultaneously. His team consisted of professionals from all fields of construction. Several of the architects who worked under him became prominent in the field later on, such as Josep Maria Jujol, Joan Rubió, Cèsar Martinell, Francesc Folguera, and Josep Francesc Ràfols. In 1885, Gaudí moved to rural Sant Feliu de Codines to escape the cholera epidemic that was ravaging Barcelona. He lived in Francesc Ullar's house, for whom he designed a dinner table in gratitude.
The 1888 World Fair was one of the era's major events in Barcelona and represented a key point in the history of the Modernisme movement. Leading architects displayed their best works, including Gaudí, who showcased the building he had designed for the Compañía Trasatlántica (Transatlantic Company). Consequently, he received a commission to restructure the Saló de Cent of the Barcelona City Council, but this project was not constructed. In the early 1890s, Gaudí received two commissions from outside of Catalonia, namely the Episcopal Palace, Astorga, and the Casa Botines in León. These works contributed to Gaudí's growing renown across Spain. In 1891, he travelled to Málaga and Tangiers to examine the site for a project for the Franciscan Catholic Missions that the 2nd marquis of Comillas had requested him to design.
In 1899 Gaudí joined the ('Saint Luke artists' circle'), a Catholic artistic society founded in 1893 by the bishop Josep Torras i Bages and the brothers Josep and Joan Llimona. He also joined the ('spiritual league of Our Lady of Montserrat'), another Catholic Catalan organisation. The conservative and religious character of his political thought was closely linked to his defence of the cultural identity of the Catalan people.
At the beginning of the century, Gaudí was working on numerous projects simultaneously. They reflected his shift to a more personal style inspired by nature. In 1900, he received an award for the best building of the year from the Barcelona City Council for his Casa Calvet. During the first decade of the century Gaudí dedicated himself to projects like the Casa Figueras (better known as Bellesguard), the Park Güell, an unsuccessful urbanisation project, and the restoration of the Cathedral of Palma de Mallorca, for which he visited Mallorca several times. Between 1904 and 1910 he constructed the Casa Batlló and the Casa Milà, two of his most emblematic works.
As a result of Gaudí's increasing fame, in 1902 the painter Joan Llimona chose Gaudí's features to represent Saint Philip Neri in the paintings for the aisle of the Sant Felip Neri church in Barcelona. Together with Joan Santaló, son of his friend the physician Pere Santaló, he unsuccessfully founded a wrought iron manufacturing company the same year.
After moving to Barcelona, Gaudí frequently changed his address: As a student he lived in residences, generally in the area of the Gothic Quarter; when he started his career he moved among rented flats in the Eixample area. Finally, in 1906, he settled in the house in Güell Park that he owned and which had been constructed by his assistant Francesc Berenguer as a showcase property for the estate. It has since become the Gaudí Museum. There he lived with his father (who died in 1906 at the age of 93) and his niece Rosa Egea Gaudí (who died in 1912 at age 36). He lived in the house until 1925, several months before his death, when he began residing inside the workshop of the Sagrada Família. The Tragic Week in 1909 had a profound impact on Gaudí's personality. Gaudí remained in his house in Güell Park during this turbulent period. The anticlerical atmosphere and attacks on churches and convents caused Gaudí to worry for the safety of the Sagrada Família, but the building escaped damage.
In 1910, an exhibition in the Grand Palais of Paris was devoted to his work, during the annual salon of the Société des Beaux-Arts (Fine Arts Society) of France. Gaudí participated on the invitation of count Güell, displaying a series of pictures, plans and plaster scale models of several of his works. Although he participated hors concours, he received good reviews from the French press. A large part of this exposition could be seen the following year at the I Salón Nacional de Arquitectura that took place in the municipal exhibition hall of El Buen Retiro in Madrid.
During the Paris exposition in May 1910, Gaudí spent a holiday in Vic, where he designed two basalt lampposts and wrought iron for the Plaça Major of Vic in honour of Jaume Balmes's centenary. The following year he resided as a convalescent in Puigcerdà while suffering from tuberculosis. During this time he conceived the idea for the façade of the Passion of the Sagrada Família. Due to ill health he prepared a will at the office of the notary Ramon Cantó i Figueres on 9 June, but later recovered.