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Torre Bellesguard
A best-kept Gaudí secret, now open to the public
Barcelonans with the readies have been playing country squire at the foot of the Collserola at least since 1400, when King Martí the Humane, the last Catalan king of the house of Barcelona, built his summer residence on the hill at Bellesguard ('Beautiful View').
Five hundred years later, Jaume Figueras, a friend of Gaudí, commissioned him to build a villa by its ruins.
The historical connotations inspired Gaudí to create a tall, neo-Gothic castle (1900–5) of stone and brick, filled with delightful mosaics and intricate ironwork, with his trademark four-armed cross at the top of the pinnacle.
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Text © Dana Facaros & Michael Pauls
Images by Canaan, Catalan ArtArchitecture Gallery (Josep Bracons), Daniel García Peris