Port Visit: Barcelona's Park Guell

Gaudi's famous salamander made of mosaics at Municipal Garden

Another major landmark that you have to see in Barcelona is Park Guell located on Carmel Hill. A Spanish entrepreneur, Eusebi Guell, who made his money in the industrial revolution in Catalonia, commissioned Antoni Gaudi to design the park, which he did from 1900 to 1914.

Gaudi lived in this house (1906-26) which is now a museum

Parc Guell was officially opened in 1926 and in 1984 was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site.

Originally the park was meant to be a commercial housing project but it was unsuccessful: the land was basically a rocky hill with few trees and vegetation, but the location was away from smoky factories, hence the air was relatively clean.

Guell had hoped to build 60 lots of luxury housing here that were fitted with modern technology, and he tried to initiate buyer interest by moving there himself into an existing country house called Larrard House in 1906.

Entrepreneur Guell lived here in Larrard House

However, in the end only two houses were built -- one as a show house, the other for sale, but no one was interested in buying them. So at Guell's suggestion, Gaudi bought one of the homes and moved in with his family and father in 1906 and lived there until 1926.

The house contains original works by Gaudi and is now a museum called Gaudi House Museum. Unfortunately we didn't have time to go inside.

However, we did wander around the colonnaded footpath under the roadway viaduct and heard some flamenco music being played and saw some musicians along with a flamenco dancer.

Benches are shaped like a sea serpent at Municipal Garden

We also sadly missed the Municipal Garden, made famous by Gaudi's colourful mosaic salamander called "el drac" or "dragon". This part of the park also requires paying an entrance fee. I visited this part of the park over 20 years ago and I was blown away by how creative Gaudi was with the long bench that is shaped like a sea serpent.