Antoni Gaudí, the architect

There's a quick way to be misled about Gaudí, and it's by relying solely on the signature. There are projects attributed to him that he didn's actually design, there's a work of his that he refused to sign, and entire buildings where the elements that are most admired were created by someone else. This isn't a minor detail; it's the reason why each website lists a different number of works and why none of them explain how they've determined authorship.

This page addresses that very issue, which is something that almost no one talks about, and from here, you can access the other six sections: the life [of the subject], the method [used], the era, the centennial, the catalog of what remains standing, and the list of what was lost or never built.

Francesc Berenguer i Mestres (1866-1914) left his architecture studies in 1888 without graduating. Without a degree, he couldn't sign a project, so someone else would sign it, and that someone was often Gaudí. The Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya states it plainly: "it is common to find projects of his signed by Gaudí." Berenguer worked alongside him from 1887 until his death; the COAC attributes twenty-one works to him, and when Gaudí died, he said he had lost his right hand.

The opposite case also exists, and there is only one. The Xalet del Catllaràs, in Pobla de Lillet, is by Gaudí, and Gaudí never claimed it. A study by Galdric Santana, from the Real Cátedra Gaudí at UPC, commissioned by the Generalitat, confirmed this in February 2026: the project is his, but he did not oversee the work, which was executed and modified by others. What was ultimately built was not what he had designed, and he preferred not to put his name on it. Those seeking consistency will find this: he signed projects by others out of friendship, and he did not sign his own when he did not recognize the result.

Between these two extremes lies a gray area that guides often resolve with a simple "yes" or "no." The honest approach is to explain who holds each viewpoint and allow the reader to understand the extent of the uncertainty.

There is a third confusion, more subtle than the previous two: in several works signed by Gaudí, the actual direction came from someone else. El Capricho of Comillas was directed by Cristòfol Cascante, a colleague from the same graduating class, who received his degree on the same day as him, March 15, 1878, working on a model that Gaudí had prepared. Whether Gaudí actually visited Comillas is a question that the museum itself leaves open, and which is complicated by the fact that he had already worked there in 1881, on the kiosks. In the cathedral of Palma, the actual direction was by Joan Rubió i Bellver, and the decoration was by Jujol. In the Torre Bellesguard, Rubió also oversaw the integration of the castle remains, and Jujol completed the viaduct.

The most uncomfortable case is the Casa Vicens. Gaudí rejected the 1925 expansion because he was dedicated to the temple, and he himself appointed Joan Baptista Serra de Martínez to carry it out. Serra demolished and replaced Gaudí's original staircase, closed off the tribune with stained glass windows, and added a tower-minaret almost identical to the original. In 1928, he won the municipal award for artistic buildings with this expansion, the same award that Casa Calvet had received in 1900. A large part of what is seen today in Casa Vicens is the work of Serra, chosen by Gaudí to replace him.

The most iconic design attributed to Gaudí was not actually created by Gaudí. The hexagonal pavement stone of Passeig de Gràcia was designed in 1904 for the Casa Batlló, and the relief was defined by modeling it directly in wax with his fingers. Manufacturing delays meant that it was never installed there: the pieces ended up in the service areas and kitchens of Casa Milà. Escofet produced it between 1906 and 1964. It finally reached the sidewalk of Passeig de Gràcia in 1971, forty-five years after his death, and the tile that is walked on today is the redesign from 1997, with the relief inverted. Gaudí never saw his design on a sidewalk.

The motifs are starfish, ammonites, and algae, although another interpretation sees an octopus, a sea snail, and the starfish. Each piece shows a third of each, so you need seven tiles in a row to see the three complete designs. They cover 60,000 square meters of Passeig de Gràcia and should not be confused with the four-petal flower pavement, which is the standard paving of the city and has nothing to do with it.