Guide to Barcelona

Park Güell

Thursday, 09 April 2009 13:47

In and Around Barcelona

When coming to Barcelona, Park Guell is one of the places that people absolutely must visit.
It is one of the most famous sights of Barcelona alongside with Sagrada Familia and the Camp nou stadium.
Gaudi's creation attracts millions of visiters every year, and for good reason, it is the most beautifull park of Barcelona, which says alot because there are a lot of big parks in Barcelona. There is also the architecture that is defintely worth seeing, but one of the biggest reasons is the view. Park Guell offers you the best view over the city of Barcelona. The breathtaking sight alone is enough reason for everyone to come visit.

History

Park Guell is located in the Gracia district of Barcelona and was designed by Antoni Gaudi and built between 1900-1914, the park is currently on the UNESCO world herritage site " works of Gaudi".

Eusebi Guell a prominent idustrialist, in 1900 gave Gaudi the order to built a housing site, the idea was to turn this rocky landscape in to a place for the rich to get away from the factury smoke of the city and get a nice view off it. After the housing venture prove to be unsuccesfull Gaudi was given the assignmnent to design the park.

Because the housing idea prove to be unsuccessful when there were not many interested people. This resulted in Gaudi having to buy the house with his savings and moving in with his family. He lived there until 1926. The house is a museum since 1963.The park has been skillfully designed and the point was to bring out the peacily environment that a park should have.Gaudi used his imposing style to construct the park in such a way that the landscape was incorperated in the design. Consisting of bright colours and unusual architectere.

But before all that Gaudi took the assignment becaus he considered it a great opportunity to  display his on nature inspired ideas of architecture.Park Guell consists of integrated stairs who are in harmony with the natural environment, alot of paths. colored mosaic decorations throughout the park.Prominent parts of park Guell are the entrance with the portersloge and the guardhouse. The fence,terrace-walls,the huge columns, the double stairs with the salamander and the huge bench. The bench and the salamander have been decorated with a huge amount of mosaicpieces.

The guardhouse is nowadays an souvenirshop and the portersloge has been turned in to a place where it is possible to get park Guell guide books.To design the curvature of the bench Gaudi choose to use the buttocks left by a women who sat in wet clay.The parks high point is designed in such a way that it gives the visitors a spectecular view all over the city. Visitos can get a view all over the city and see famous sights such as Sagrada Familia and the Monjuic area.

How to get to Park Guell

It may be usefull to know how to get to park Guell, as most people who come to Barcelona are staying in the centre and don't have the option to use a vehicle, public transport is the most common way for people to travel around Barcelona.When using the public transport this is how you het to Park Guell: take the green L3 undergroundline towards "lesseps" station, after you get out follow the indications on the tourist pannels and you will be in the park quickly.

Besides Lesseps another and maybe even better option is the L3 vallarca metro station it is nearer to the park but is a bit of a climb, although there are escalators for a big part of the way.

If youw want to take the bus take  24(this bus is extemely handy for people who have difficulties walking long distance as the bus leaves from plaza Catalunya and drops you of near the entrance of the park), also busses-31-32-74-92-bus del barri 112 or the redtouruist bus line.

Park Guell admission and opening hours

The entrance to park Guell is free for all, however if you want to visit the Gaudi museum that is located in park Guell you need to pay a fee of €5,-.

The opening hours of the park are:

• April - 10.00 to 20.00
• May to September - 10.00 to 21.00
• Oct ober - 10.00 to 20.00
• November – 10.00 to 19.00
• December – 10.00 to 18.00
• 7 days a week. (also open on holidays)

We can conclude that the park is a must visit for everyone who visits Barcelona, besides the obvious things the park has to offer that we already mentioned the park also has an area where kids can play and a area for pets, there is also a bar. A tip we want to give is to bring your own Water to the park as getting water canbe difficult or you pay to much money. Especially in the summer while climbing up the paths it can be really helpfull to have a botte of water.

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