The Gaudí works that are located outside of Barcelona

Let's start with what determines the trip. The Colònia Güell Crypt is 23 kilometers from the center of Barcelona and is reached by suburban train: it's the only one that can be visited in half a morning. The Jardins Artigas are about a hundred kilometers away, in the Berguedà region, and although they are still in the province of Barcelona, the journey is mountainous and takes the whole day.

The other two are in a different Spain. El Capricho is located in Comillas, on the coast of Cantabria, 49 kilometers from Santander. The Palacio Episcopal is in Astorga, in the Castilian plateau, 46 kilometers from León. There are approximately 230 kilometers of highway between the two, so anyone traveling north can see both without significantly altering their itinerary. It's not feasible to combine the north with Catalonia in a weekend, no matter how much all four are featured on the same page.

Between 1883 and 1893, Gaudí was simultaneously working on projects in Comillas, Astorga, and León, in addition to all his work in Barcelona. Cars and telephones did not yet exist. Coordination was done by train and by mail, with blueprints that took days to arrive, and corrections that appeared only after the wall had already been built.

That explains something that's surprising when you see them together: they look very different. El Capricho is made of ceramics, with vibrant colors and a tower that imitates a minaret. Astorga is made of white granite and features pointed arches; it's a building that you would swear was medieval until you look at the details. The Casa Botines in León is almost austere. And the crypt of the Colònia Güell, built fifteen years later, doesn't resemble any of the other three, nor does it look like anything that had been built before. Anyone looking for "the Gaudí style" in these four buildings won't find it. What you see instead is an architect tackling four distinct commissions, using whatever materials and techniques were available in each location, which is actually much more interesting.

It's best to mention this before someone wastes half an hour searching. The Casa Botines in León receives 142,632 visitors per year, and it doesn't have a single ticket available for sale through any of the three catalogs we work with. Tickets are purchased at the building's ticket office or on the museum's website. It's one of Gaudí's best-preserved works and one of the most popular, and yet, it doesn't offer tickets for sale through any external channels.

Something similar, but for a different reason, happens with the cathedral of Palma de Mallorca. Gaudí worked there between 1904 and 1914 on a renovation of the interior that was left unfinished, and the building is not his: it is a Gothic temple that began construction in the 13th century, and he made modifications to it. It is visited and an entrance fee is charged, but to sell it as a "work by Gaudí" would be stretching the truth more than it can bear.

Three combinations work, but one doesn't.

The first option is Barcelona and its province: visit the Colonia Güell crypt one morning, and spend an entire day at the Artigas Gardens, requiring a car. The second option is the north: Comillas and Astorga are about 230 kilometers apart, with León in between, home to the Casa Botines. This itinerary includes three Gaudí works in three days, without staying in the same hotel for more than one night, and it's a trip that no guidebook suggests. The third option is the most obvious and the one that almost no one considers: Comillas can easily be included in any trip to Santander or the Picos de Europa, and the detour is only 49 kilometers.

Trying to fit both the north of Spain and Catalonia into the same weekend doesn't work. There are 830 kilometers between Astorga and Barcelona. It's certainly possible, but in that case, the journey itself becomes the focus, and Gaudí becomes just an excuse.