Gaudí Crypt and Colònia Güell

The Sagrada Família was tested here, and it shows. The inclined columns, the hyperbolic paraboloid vaults, the way of calculating a structure by suspending weights from a rope: all of this was first tested in this small church in a working-class town, and then it was applied to the temple. Anyone who understands this crypt will understand the mechanism of the basilica, and it will save them a lot of time waiting in line.

The second thing you need to know is that what you are visiting is a fragment. Only the lower section of the complete project was built. There is nothing above it, and this is due to a family decision that most people misunderstand.

An industrial colony was a factory with a town within it: the production buildings, the workers' homes, and the facilities all within the same complex, outside the city and next to a river. The Colònia Güell was founded in 1890, began production in 1891, and occupied 160 hectares. The textile factory closed in 1973.

There were many, and the reasons are documented, and there are three, none of which are romantic. The first is energetic: the watermills powered by rivers provided cheap motive power when Catalan coal was bad and expensive. The second is control social: in the literature of the time, the colonies are openly presented as a solution to labor conflict, because in a closed environment, far from the city, neither the union nor the strike can enter. And the third is fiscal: a law of 1868 exempted them from territorial and industrial taxes for ten to twenty-five years.

The result is expressed with numbers. There were approximately hundred colonies in Catalonia, of which seventy-seven were textile-related, and in the Alt Llobregat region, there were fourteen within just twenty kilometers of river. What this page will not provide is what a day was like inside one of them, nor the salaries, nor how many people lived in the Güell colony: we have not verified this information, and we are not going to invent it.

In a shed next to the construction site, Gaudí set up what is now known as the polyfunicular model: a 1:10 scale model, four meters high, built upside down. On the roof of the shed, he nailed a board with the church's plan. From it hung ropes, and from the ropes hung small cloth bags filled with lead shot, with the weight proportional to the loads that each point would have to bear.

The trick lies in the physics. A rope hanging from its two ends takes the shape of a catenary, and that shape is stable on its own: it doesn't need buttresses or flying buttresses. By hanging the entire building, the model itself found the geometry that would support it. Afterwards, Gaudí would photograph the structure and flip the photograph over: what was hanging would then appear to be standing. He would then paint the final outline of the building on that inverted image using gouache or pastel.

He didn't work alone. Francesc Berenguer, the model maker Joan Bertran, the bricklayer Agustí Massip, the carpenter Joan Munné, and the Alsatian engineer Eduard Goetz were also involved in the construction of the model. It is often stated that it took ten years to build it: this figure is a deduction based on the dates of the commission and the laying of the first stone, and no source confirms it.

The original model was destroyed in July 1936. It was reconstructed in Stuttgart, in 1982, under the direction of Frei Otto, the engineer of the lightweight roofs of the Munich Olympic Stadium, who is exactly the professional needed to recreate a structure calculated by suspending weights. A replica can be seen at the Colònia Güell.

The entrance portico is the point where Gaudí first uses the hyperbolic paraboloid vault, the surface that would later fill the Sagrada Família. Inside, there are sixteen inclined basalt columns, brought from Castellfollit de la Roca, alternating with circular brick pillars. They are inclined for a reason that Gaudí defended without reservation: a well-inclined column is more stable than a vertical one, because it receives the thrust in the direction in which it works.

The stained glass windows are shaped like flower petals and butterfly wings, and the frames are movable, so the windows open without breaking the design. The three altars are by Jujol and Puig i Boada. The entire ensemble was restored between 1999 and 2002, under the direction of Antoni González Moreno-Navarro for the Diputació de Barcelona.

The version that is circulating, and which is on the Spanish and English Wikipedia, is that the construction work stopped when Eusebi Güell died. Both are wrong, and in the same way. Güell died on July 9, 1918, and the construction work had been stopped for years.

What happened had a cause. It was the children of Güell who informed Gaudí that they would no longer be financing the project. It was not an accident or a misfortune; it was a decision by the heirs regarding an expense they did not consider to be theirs.

Regarding the exact year, sources disagree, and here we state it instead of choosing: the website of the monument itself gives 1914, the Catalan Wikipedia gives 1915, and the final abandonment is placed in 1918, with the death of the count. The lower nave was blessed on November 3, 1915, so something continued to be done at least until that autumn. Gaudí did not return: from 1914, he dedicated himself exclusively to the Sagrada Família.

The monument sells a "Gaudí Combination Ticket" that includes the train from Barcelona. It is the only combined ticket for the entire Gaudí circuit that also solves transportation, and when you put it that way, it sounds unbeatable. Now, let's get to the details, which no one mentions: Santa Coloma de Cervelló is within the metropolitan fare zone of a certain area. In other words, you can get there with a regular transportation ticket, probably the same one you're already using to get around the city. The combined ticket saves less than it seems.

Furthermore, there are two crucial pieces of information that would determine whether to purchase the package deal, but which the monument does not disclose: whether the train ticket is for a round trip or a one-way ticket, and from which station it departs. Without this information, it's impossible to compare the package deal with the cost of purchasing the individual components separately.

And there is a larger lagoon, which is unique among the eight Gaudí monuments. Colònia Güell does not publish the age ranges for reduced fares or the threshold for free admission for children. All the others do. Here, we will not fill in the gap with a plausible figure: if you are going with children or seniors, you must inquire on the official website before purchasing. There are three individual options and four for groups.

In terms of accessibility, the building is accessible except for the choir and the roof, which are precisely the two areas that require stairs.