Casa Vicens

The very first major work Gaudí built in Barcelona. While the ultimate splendor of the master architect’s impressive career is better typified by other structures like the Sagrada Familia, or Park Güell, Gaudí created a series of earlier works that allowed him to test the techniques that would later establish and perfect the architectural style that defined a school and achieved an inimitable legacy. One of these early “testing grounds” was Casa Vicens, a summer home located in the independent village of Gracia. It was commissioned in 1883 by stockbroker Manel Vicens i Montaner to the then youthful Gaudí, who was just finishing up his work on El Capricho, in Comillas.

Forgotten by many and perhaps eclipsed by more groundbreaking works like the Pedrera or Casa Batlló, Casa Vicens has recently stepped back into the spotlight, thanks to its restoration and re-opening as a house-museum towards the end of 2017. While El Capricho takes the cake as Gaudí’s first-ever construction, Casa Vicens is considered the first Modernist work erected in Catalonia.

Although today the property expands no further than the residence itself, 30 meters in diameter, it originally took up over 1,000 square meters in land area, on a plot which was also home to a garden inspired by Mediterranean flora and fauna, and replete with palm trees, climbing plants, magnolias, and roses. Years later, the house was expanded under a project carried out in 1925 under Joan Baptista Serra. Catalogued as a Historic-Artistic Monument, the structure was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005. After it opened to the public, Time magazine conferred it the distinction of being among the top 100 places to visit in the world.