Antoni Gaudi

Antoni Gaudi i Cornet was born on June 25, 1852, in the rural town of Riudoms, near Tarragona in Catalonia, though some confusion exists about his exact birthplace as there is no birth certificate and he was baptized the following day in the nearby larger town of Reus. This ambiguity about his origins seems fitting for a man whose entire life would be marked by extraordinary circumstances and mysterious contradictions. The youngest of five children born to Francesc Gaudi, a coppersmith, and Antonia Cornet, Antoni would prove to be the most resilient of his siblings, outliving all of them despite suffering from poor health throughout his childhood.

The Gaudi family's humble origins as metalworkers would profoundly influence Antoni's future architectural vision. His father and grandfather were coppersmiths who crafted cauldrons and distillation equipment for the local liquor industry, and young Antoni spent countless hours in their workshop observing how metal could be shaped into three-dimensional forms. This early exposure to the manipulation of space and volume would later become fundamental to his revolutionary architectural approach. He frequently remarked that his constant memories of cauldrons and serpentines brought out a habit of thinking in three dimensions, and these spiral and buckled forms would have an enormous impact on his artistic development.

Antoni's childhood was marked by persistent illness, particularly rheumatism, which prevented him from participating in normal childhood activities. Instead of playing with other children, he was often confined to observing the Mediterranean landscape from his bed, which his devoted mother Antonia placed next to a large window overlooking the family gardens. The garden's curved lines, twisting shapes, and rich colors captured his imagination during these long periods of enforced rest. Sometimes he was so weak that he couldn't walk and had to get around on a donkey, a detail that speaks to both his physical frailty and the eccentric character he would develop.

These health concerns led to Gaudi's early adoption of vegetarianism, influenced by the hygienist theories of Sebastian Kneipp. His religious faith and strict vegetarianism would later drive him to undertake lengthy and severe fasts that were often unhealthy and occasionally life-threatening, as occurred in 1894 when he nearly died from malnutrition. This extreme relationship with food would persist throughout his life, and in his later years, he reportedly ate only lettuce dipped in milk for a typical lunch.

Gaudi attended nursery school run by Francesc Berenguer, whose son, also called Francesc, would later become one of his most important architectural collaborators. During his secondary education at the Piarists school in Reus, he displayed artistic talent through drawings for a school publication called El Arlequin. His academic performance was mediocre at best, with average grades and occasional failures, but his creative spirit was already evident. He also worked as an apprentice in a textile mill, as was common for children during the Industrial Revolution.

The young Gaudi spent considerable time at his family's farmhouse in Riudoms, where he would take long walks in the countryside to help heal his various ailments. These periods of solitude in nature became crucial to his development, as he observed everything from the shapes of birds to the different hardness of stones, the smells, colors, shapes of trees, and animal bone structures. His profound religiousness determined his subsequent career under the principle that nature, as the supreme work of the Creator, represented the highest perfection. He famously declared that "the big book, always open and we must strive to read, is that of nature."

When Gaudi graduated from the Barcelona Higher School of Architecture in 1878, the ceremony included one of the most prophetic statements in architectural history. Elies Rogent, the school's director, handed him his degree saying, "We have given this academic title either to a fool or a genius. Time will show." Gaudi himself, displaying his characteristic ironical sense of humor, reportedly told his friend, the sculptor Llorenç Matamala, "Llorenç, they're saying I'm an architect now."

The transformation of Gaudi from struggling student to celebrated architect began with a chance encounter that would change his life forever. In 1878, at the Universal Exhibition in Paris, he designed a showcase for glove retailer Esteve Comella that caught the attention of Eusebi Güell, a wealthy Catalan industrialist who would become not only his most important patron but also his closest friend. Güell was fascinated by the carved oak wood that coordinated perfectly with fine forged iron and decorative projections, which held unusually placed panes of glass allowing comfortable viewing of the exhibited gloves.

Eusebi Güell Bacigalupi was six years older than Gaudi and possessed a fortune estimated at around 70-80 billion euros by today's standards, making him one of the richest people on earth and by far the wealthiest Spaniard of his era. The son of industrialist Joan Güell i Ferrer, Eusebi had studied law, economics, physics, chemistry, and mechanics in Barcelona and several European cities. His passion for arts and culture prompted him to patronize writers, painters, sculptors, and musicians. A student of Greek culture, his travels in search of new technical and artistic knowledge were constant.

When Güell returned to Barcelona from Paris, he sought out the creator of the marvelous display case he had seen. This led him to Taller Puntí, a workshop specializing in ironworks, carpentry, glassworks, and all types of arts and industrial arts. There he was introduced to Gaudi, marking the beginning of a relationship that would last until Güell's death in 1918. The friendship between these two men was extraordinary - Güell gave Gaudi complete creative freedom and unlimited financial resources, while Gaudi returned this trust by creating some of the most innovative architectural works in history.

Gaudi's first major independent commission came in 1878 with Casa Vicens, a summer house for Manuel Vicens i Montaner in what was then the independent town of Gràcia. This project, completed between 1883 and 1885, established many of the themes that would define his mature work. The house showcased his orientalist style with Moorish and Mudéjar influences, featuring spectacular green and white ceramic tiles and natural motifs inspired by the Mediterranean flora and fauna he had observed during his childhood convalescence.

An amusing anecdote from this period illustrates Gaudi's perfectionist nature and indifference to financial concerns. When building Casa Vicens, the brick factory owner allowed him to use bricks for free, but Gaudi's obsession with quality and detail led him to use so many expensive materials that the factory nearly went bankrupt. A normal person would have stopped using costly materials to save the business, but Gaudi was unmoved by such practical considerations, prioritizing artistic perfection over economic reality.

Throughout his career, Gaudi developed numerous eccentric habits that reflected his unique personality. One of the most peculiar involved his footwear - he couldn't bear to wear new shoes and always gave them to his brother to stretch out first. After his brother died, he asked his students to stretch his shoes using their feet, demonstrating both his sensitivity to physical discomfort and his ability to impose his quirks on others.

Gaudi's personal appearance underwent a dramatic transformation over the years. As a young man, he dressed like a dandy in costly suits, sporting well-groomed hair and beard, indulging gourmet taste, making frequent visits to the theater and opera, and visiting his project sites in a horse carriage. However, the older Gaudi ate frugally, dressed in old, worn-out suits, and neglected his appearance to such an extent that he was sometimes mistaken for a beggar.

His romantic life was remarkably limited. Gaudi devoted his life entirely to his profession, remaining single throughout his life. He is known to have been attracted to only one woman, Josefa Moreu, a teacher at the Mataró Cooperative in 1884, but this attraction was not reciprocated. His niece later claimed that "he didn't even look at women." After this disappointment, Gaudi took refuge in his Catholic faith and never pursued another romantic relationship.

During his lifetime, many people considered Gaudi's work to be terrible. This included prominent figures like Pablo Picasso and George Orwell, both Barcelona residents for a time. Orwell famously described La Sagrada Familia as one of the world's most hideous buildings. The only project the City of Barcelona ever assigned him was the design of street lights, which can still be seen in Plaza Real. Municipal authorities repeatedly tried to prevent construction on many of his works because he had a habit of flouting building regulations with his expansive extensions, but he simply ignored them.

Ironically, he did win the Building of the Year award for his rather ordinary Casa Calvet, which was considered subdued by his usual standards. This recognition came for his most conventional work, while his truly innovative projects were widely criticized by contemporary critics and the general public.

Gaudi's relationship with the Sagrada Familia began in 1883 when he took over the project from Francisco de Paula del Villar, who had resigned after disagreements with the project's promoters. What was originally planned as a conventional Gothic revival church became something entirely unprecedented under Gaudi's direction. He would spend the last forty-three years of his life working on this project, dedicating himself exclusively to it from 1914 onward.

The construction of the Sagrada Familia was funded entirely by donations, leading Gaudi to remark that "my client is not in a hurry" when asked about the extremely long construction period. This religious devotion was genuine and profound - Gaudi became increasingly pious as he aged, attending Mass daily whenever possible and incorporating deep theological symbolism into every aspect of the building's design.

In 1914, following the deaths of several close friends, relatives, collaborators, and patrons, Gaudi withdrew almost completely from society. He moved into a tiny workshop inside the Sagrada Familia, gave up all other architectural projects, and turned down interviews. His hygiene habits deteriorated drastically as he wore shabby, ragged clothing and stopped shaving, growing a long, unkempt beard that made him look like a hermit or beggar.

His extreme religious devotion manifested in severe fasting that often endangered his health. These fasts were inspired both by his vegetarianism and his belief that physical deprivation brought him closer to God. His typical lunch consisted of little more than lettuce dipped in milk, and he would undertake extended periods of near-starvation that alarmed his few remaining friends and collaborators.

Gaudi also became a passionate recycler, using broken ceramic pieces, tiles, and other discarded materials in his work, particularly in the technique known as trencadís that became one of his signature decorative methods. This practice reflected both his artistic vision and his belief in not wasting God's creation, turning refuse into beauty through artistic transformation.

The end came suddenly and tragically on June 7, 1926. At the age of 73, during his daily walk to confession at the Sant Felip Neri church, Gaudi was struck by tram number 30 on Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes, between Girona and Bailén streets. Because of his disheveled appearance and the fact that he carried no identification, witnesses assumed he was just another homeless man. Taxi drivers refused to take a beggar to the hospital, and he lay unconscious on the street until a police officer finally ordered a taxi to take him to the Hospital of the Holy Cross in the Raval district.

Within a few hours, his friends and employees at the Sagrada Familia noticed his absence and began searching for him. When they finally discovered what had happened, Gaudi's condition was already critical. He had fractured three ribs, and his brain, heart, and stomach were all affected by the accident. Despite belated medical attention, he died three days later on June 10, 1926. He was buried inside the Sagrada Familia, the building that had consumed the last decades of his life and remained unfinished at his death.

The architect Eusebi Güell had died eight years earlier in 1918, ending one of the most productive artistic partnerships in history. Their friendship had produced the Güell Palace, Park Güell, the Güell Colony, and the Güell Wine Cellars, each representing a different aspect of Gaudi's evolving architectural philosophy. The loss of his patron and closest friend had contributed to Gaudi's increasing isolation and religious obsession during his final years.

Today, more than 140 years after construction began, the Sagrada Familia continues to rise toward completion, projected to be finished in 2026, exactly one hundred years after Gaudi's death. Eight of his works have been declared UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and his influence on modern architecture is immeasurable. What began as the eccentric vision of a sickly child observing nature from his bedroom window has become one of the most recognizable architectural legacies in human history.

The story of Antoni Gaudi represents one of the most extraordinary transformations in architectural history - from a frail, rheumatic child riding a donkey through the Catalan countryside to the creator of some of the world's most innovative and beloved buildings. His ability to translate the organic forms and natural processes he observed during his childhood convalescence into revolutionary architectural solutions demonstrates the power of limitations to spark creativity. His lifelong devotion to his craft, his unwavering religious faith, and his willingness to sacrifice conventional success for artistic integrity created a body of work that continues to inspire and astonish visitors from around the world.

Gaudi's legacy extends far beyond his buildings to encompass his pioneering use of biomimicry, his integration of traditional craftsmanship with innovative engineering, and his demonstration that architecture could be both functional and transcendently beautiful. His life story, filled with anecdotes of eccentric behavior, profound spirituality, and artistic genius, illustrates how individual vision and dedication can create works that outlast their creators and continue to speak to future generations about the possibilities of human creativity when aligned with divine inspiration and natural wisdom.