Photo Tour: Gaudí’s Casa Vicens (Barcelona)

Casa Vicens, #11, Barcelona, 2021

Tucked Away For Years…But Now Open

This is yet another of Gaudí’s gems that has opened to the public only recently. It was still in private hands when we would occasionally stroll by its dusty and fading facade back in 2010. But major renovations were finally completed some 3-4 years ago and the home is now open to the public, so add this one to your list–along with the Sagrada Familia Temple, Park Güell, Casa Milà (La Pedrera), Casa Batlló, and Palau Güell. (Hmmm… it seems that the list just keeps getting longer as Catalunya aquires, improves, and opens these properties.)

As an architect, this was Gaudí’s first big home-building contract. He was young–in his early thirties–and he went all out with the project. Back in the day (1880s), this area was well outside of Barcelona, in the countryside, but I imagine that the few neighbors who were around had to have been quite incredulous and perhaps even insulted at the “monstrosity” he designed and built here. But that’s the way of many such iconic structures, I suppose–rejected, hated, criticised, spat upon at first, only to become proud symbols of ground-breaking art and architecture in later years. Think the Eiffel Tower in Paris, or the Guggenheim Museum in New York, for example.

Like Palau Güell, down in the bowels of the old city, this home also sits on a narrow, one-way street–Carrer de les Carolines–and it’s just as difficult to see, crammed as it is between the much, much uglier bunker-style apartments all around.

The recent (2014-2017) renovations were extremely meticulous–carefully stripping off layers of paint to reveal original colors, restoring paint to the original sheen, cleaning by Q-tip, polishing, scrubbing, repainting, repairing/replacing broken tiles and bricks, etc. Their website says that “a multidisciplinary team, made up of architects, artisans, historians, experts on the works of Gaudí, chemists and photographers…” were all involved with the objective of being as faithful as possible to Antoni’s crazy, youthful intent, and they did an amazing job.

Be prepared to say, “Wow!” as you walk into each space. Everyone does!

For the latest details on hours, prices, the current temporary exhibits, and so on, go to the official website at Casa Vicens.

Some Photography Notes

I used only my iPhone Xs once again, leaving the heavy camera gear at home. (I seem to be doing this more and more often when I know the images will only be used on the web.) If you have one of the newer mobile phones that has a camera with a wide-angle lens, you will find that it will come in handy in some of the tighter spaces along the tour.

If you are a typical DSLR user, you could certainly find plenty of subject matter here for the holy trinity of lenses (14-24mm, 24-70mm, 70-200mm). However, they ask you to leave larger bags in lockers at the entrance, so consider how you could unobtrusively carry all that gear–or just pick one lens for the day. (Personally, I would go with two, say, a 24-120mm f/4 with the bug-eyed 14-24mm f/2.8 stuffed in a bulging pocket.) Leave the tripod–not allowed.

The Photo Tour

For Gaudí, it was all about God, religion, and the natural world–and architecture, of course. Those were his loves. Do the following pictures support that thesis? What do you think?

Starting with a few exterior views… The facade that faces the street (Carrer de les Carolines) was actually meant to be the side of the house. The front of the house faces west and has the four big, yellow, rectangular shutters and the fountain:

Casa Vicens, #66, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #65, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #64, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #3, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #4, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #5, Barcelona, 2021

The interior tour starts through this entrance, after you have passed around the building and through the patio area:

Casa Vicens, #8, Barcelona, 2021

The ceilings (and doorways) are amazingly intricate–lots of custom carpentry. And the fixture in the first image? Well… I would just say that it is certainly a nice conversation piece (Looks like a drug-addled traffic light to me.):

Casa Vicens, #13, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #14, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #20, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #23, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #28, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #32, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #41, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #44, Barcelona, 2021

Bathroom fixtures–the latest 19th century technology:

Casa Vicens, #31, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #33, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #37, Barcelona, 2021

Every Gaudí building comes with quite a collection of intricate ironwork based on plants and flowers found in Nature. Some (like the palm fronds) were molded directly from the real thing:

Casa Vicens, #21, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #61, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #62, Barcelona, 2021

Walls and windows:

Casa Vicens, #17, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #19, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #24, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #22, Barcelona, 2021

The ceiling… ocean waves, perhaps?

Casa Vicens, #26, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #27, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #34, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #36, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #39, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #43, Barcelona, 2021

The current temporary exhibit (April 30 – October 31, 2021) includes selected works from the visual artist, Txemy Basualto:

Casa Vicens, #45, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #46, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #47, Barcelona, 2021

On the museum floor, you can see scale models of Casa Vicens, smaller pieces of the tile and porcelain work, and read about the history of the house (expansions, remodeling, use, renovation, etc.). Most interesting to me were some of the architect’s actual plans showing his flowery signature:

Casa Vicens, #50, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #49, Barcelona, 2021

Casa Vicens, #48, Barcelona, 2021

The rooftop. It’s a shame that such a wonderful building has been boxed in so tightly (it can hardly breathe!) by so much sterile concrete, hanging bedsheets, and satellite antennas: