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The Gaudí Tour
Departure: Daily at 9 am all year round except Dec 25 & 26 and Jan 1 & 6. Daily except Sundays at 3.15 pm from April 15 to October 31. Departure from Pl. Catalunya opposite Tourist Office, in front of Deutsche Bank & Hotel Olivia Plaza.
Duration: 3 h aprox.
Price: includes entrance to Park Güell & Sagrada Familia
Guides: Officially-licensed, English-speaking local experts on Gaudí´s architecture
Languages: Only in English
Transport: Comfortable air-conditioned bus
Itinerary: Passeig de Gràcia > Façades of Casa Batlló and La Pedrera > Gràcia > Pl Lesseps > Park Güell > Sagrada Família
This tour will take you to the best of Gaudí, at different points of the city, in a comfortable coach and avoiding entrance queues.
Antoni Gaudí, visionary architect during Barcelona´s modernista (art nouveau) period early last century, graced Barcelona with nearly all his extraordinary and beautiful buildings. No less than 7 have been listed as World Heritage by UNESCO.
We will explain what makes them extraordinary: the detail, the symbols, the structural secrets, the technical innovation, and give you a guided tour of Park Güell and the Sagrada Família.
Gaudí´s master work, the Sagrada Família, is the last on the tour so you can stay and explore it as long as you like, return in the coach to the city centre, or continue on ”The Montjuic & Panoramic Tour”.
Passeig de Gràcia: This broad elegant avenue was built for and by the wealthy Barcelonians and they have never left; luxury and design shops line the street along with major banks and the stock exchange. Architectural details include modernist lampposts and Gaudí.s tiles for pavements and a myriad of grand buildings including two of Gaudí.s houses.
Park Güell: Demonstration of how far ahead of his time Gaudí was, this residential suburb was financed by Eusebi Güell and meticulously planned by Gaudí with intertwining roads and footpaths, water catchment, market place and square, gardens and lodges. Only two houses were sold and eventually the Güell family sold it for a symbolic amount to the city as a park and allowing us all to benefit from this beautiful, world heritage site. The now familiar mixture of highly advanced technical engineering and fantasy decoration is epitomized by the famous mosaic dragon or salamander, which is also an overflow for the underground water cistern, and the curved mosaic bench around the square which is at once a seat, a balcony and a wonderful piece of art. It was listed as World Heritage by UNESCO in 1984.
Sagrada Família: The jewel in the crown of Gaudí.s works, the temple is a synthesis of his overall conception of architecture. The richness of detail and its significance need explaining in order to appreciate this fascinating and extraordinary building in full. Gaudí wished the temple, which is still being built, to be financed by the people, not by taxes or funding, and that.s just what your entrance fees do (included in our tour price): finance the completion of the building started in 1882. The Gaudí Tour We have kept the best to the last so tour members who so wish can stay on and savour the building for as long as they like, you can go up the towers by elevator, and visit the crypt and museum and compare the contrasting styles of the Birth and Passion façades.
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