Casa Vicens

A first house, a young architect, a different Gaudí. We welcome you to Casa Vicens, Antoni Gaudí’s first house. We invite you to explore the space. Together we are going to learn how it was constructed, what inspired the architect and the stories hidden behind every room… The building has undergone restoration, meaning that great efforts have been made to study and document it, returning it to the most original Gaudí. We are sure that with your perspective, we will be able to see things we haven’t yet discovered. This is Gaudí: a constant provocation of discovery.

There is no set route through the house, though we do suggest that you start at the bottom and work your way up. The audio guide includes photographs of the different rooms for you to orientate yourself. What’s more, throughout the tour, you will find house staff who can help you with any questions you have or if something catches your eye.

We begin our tour in front of the café. From here, look towards the house. This is the north east façade and shows us that the building has not always been like it is now. At the end of the 19th Century, Manuel Vicens commissioned the young Antoni Gaudí to build him a summer residence. The architect, who had just graduated, had already been reflecting for years on what he imagined an ideal home to be. He wanted it to be bound to nature; to be functional and at the same time aesthetically pleasing. Manuel Vicens’ commission was perfect for helping turn these ideas into a reality. Gaudí designs a unique, bold building, full of innovative elements which are ahead of their time.

Years later, the house changes hands and becomes a multi-family home. The needs of the new family mean that in 1925 the property is extended for the first time. The person in charge of the extension is Joan Baptista Serra de Martínez, who is a friend of Gaudí’s. The outside of the house retains its original appearance, with small, subtle changes added to it. Notice the vertical strip of white and green tiles which rise from the ground. The audio guide photograph can help you to find it. On the left you will see the part that was added, and on the right, the original. This exact spot was actually a dividing wall of a convent, which is no longer there.

If you look carefully at the flower tiles surrounding this strip you will see that some are arranged in patterns where the first tile matches the last, and others aren’t. The first belongs to the original work and the second to that of Serra de Martínez. It is a very elegant way of highlighting the difference.

Now walk a few metres ahead until you reach the fountain that you will see in the covered porch.

You are now in front of the main façade of the house, a façade which looks out onto the old garden and not the street, as you might think. Gaudí’s idea, according to Serra de Martínez, was to design the building like sprawling ivy attached to the wall of the adjoining convent. This idea explains many of the elements we will be seeing, both outside the building and inside.

This also allows him to build the house in a south-westerly facing direction, ensuring a gentler sun exposure during the summer.

Looking at the façade is like witnessing an explosion of colours. Gaudí breaks with the established norms and covers it in ceramic, a material which at the time was used more for interiors than for the outside of buildings. It is the first time Gaudí uses it, but it is certainly not the last. These tiles also help him turn his fascination for nature and oriental culture into a reality. The carpentry of the doors and windows clearly draws inspiration from Japan, and above this covered porch where the fountain is, we can see some ancient Catalan texts, which are reminiscent of Arabic inscriptions. Each one makes reference to the different solar orientations of the property. The one on the main façade refers to the warmth of the home, the one on the left, the earliest sun, and the one on the right, located in the coolest part of the house, refers to the pleasant shade of summer.

The walls that you have in front of you are full of details. Before continuing the tour, we suggest you take your time and examine them more closely, enjoying this new discovery.

“When I went to take the measurements of the plot, it was completely covered with small yellow flowers, which is what I adopted as the ornamental theme of the ceramic. I also found an exuberant palmetto palm, whose leaves, cast in iron, fill the grid of the railings and on the door to the entrance of the house”.

With these words, it seems that Gaudí is telling his protégé, Joan Bergós, the reason for using the flowers and palmetto. Both elements help to explain one of the more surprising traits of this architect: his determination to save money on construction. The tiles and railings don’t appear to be cheap in any way, but take a good look at them: the ornamental motifs of the ceramic are always the same. There are, in fact, just a few designs which are often repeated.

The same is true of the majestic wrought iron gates at the main entrance, featuring a square which appears many times. This is how Gaudí saves money, and he will continue to work like this in his subsequent projects. The famous “trencadís”, a mosaic of broken ceramic tiles which also features in his other works, is in fact a very modern way of using up waste.

You can continue the tour in the foyer, the room closest to the entrance staircase.

Before going into the foyer, why not take a look at the garden? Nowadays it is a small oasis located in the centre of the Gràcia neighbourhood, but when Gaudí designed it, it had larger dimensions and featured a large waterfall and a circular fountain which refreshed the covered porch. In Casa Vicens, Gaudí managed to design a garden which continues into the house, where nature can be found on the walls and ceilings. This helps to create a strong connection between the indoor and outdoor spaces.

The current garden is around 300 m², it has various flowerbeds, flowerpots with plants, and a garden roof. It should be noted that the atmosphere of the original late nineteenth century setting has been recreated. Some of the trees that were already on the property have been preserved, such as the oak, which is around 8 meters high or the magnolia which is around 10-12 meters high. The rest are plants which were placed during the rehabilitation of the house, following the characteristics of the plantations from that period.

But what sort of vegetation can we find? More than anything, it can be described as exotic, ornamental and adapted to the shade. As you can see from the buildings around you, the hours of sunshine are scarce.

In our garden you will also find a selection of palm trees, which include the date palm, the Mexican fan palm, groups of palmettos and the Chinese windmill palm. In addition, depending on the season of the year, you can find plants such as camellia, carnation, monstera, Chinese jasmine, roses and lilies.

As well as the flora, there are also some species of animal which have found an ideal habitat in our garden. You can discover reptiles such as the pink dragon, a small reptile with pale pink skin, or the common dragon that is larger and sturdier than the pink variety. You will also see some common lizards.

As you can imagine, birds are also a feature of this garden. We can often see blackbirds, robins, Argentine parrots, pigeons and sparrows, all of which feed on the fruits of the palm trees. The architectural structure of Casa Vicens also provides them with small enclaves which are perfect for nesting and hiding in.

We hope you have enjoyed our garden. Now why not head towards the foyer and begin your journey inside Gaudí’s first house?

The entrance hall in Casa Vicens is a true declaration of intent. Antoni Gaudí takes nature as his main source of inspiration, designing this small space to welcome visitors as a continuation of the garden. Throughout the tour you will see that this is not an isolated occurrence; the interior of the property is conceived as a meticulous explosion of vegetation which connects with the outdoors.

In this first room it is already clear that Gaudí is ahead of his time. The ground you are walking over is paved using opus tessellatum, a Roman technique which was widely used in later years, during the Modernism era. You will also find it in the works which Gaudí completed after Casa Vicens, such as the crypt of the Sagrada Familia.

If you turn left you will enter the dining room, the most noble room of the house.

Look carefully around the space. There is ivy creeping up to the floor above, carnations, thick foliage, birds playing with the wind… Gaudí fills the dining room with an explosion of nature, replete with details linking the epicentre of the house with the garden.

The pieces of furniture around you are originals that the architect commissioned. They are made to measure, and the paintings, by Francesc Torrescassana i Sellarés, are designed especially for them. Through the years these works have acquired a brownish hue as a result of dirt and smoke. Now their original colours shine through thanks to the work of the restorers. If you look at the photograph in the audio guide you will be able to see a clear difference between them.

Next, we suggest you continue to the covered porch, through one of the doors located on each side of the fireplace.

The diverse renovations carried out in the building greatly affected this space, such as the removal of the fountain. Fortunately, and thanks to the collaboration of the former owners, it was recovered from the garden of a house quite far from here, in the province of Girona. It was restored and now retains the same location and function that it originally had.

There is a lot to be said about this covered porch, but first take a seat and enjoy it (we can hear a conversation from men in the background and the sound of water in the fountain). Listen to the sound of the water and relax. Now let’s use our imaginations: there are no buildings around us, just the original garden and the waterfall that we will talk about later. Can you see the metallic spider’s web of the fountain? What do you think happened when the sun’s rays passed through its weave? Where did this water originally come from?

Antoni Gaudí was a lover of nature, as you already know, but with Casa Vicens he is not only inspired by it, he builds it. The rays of sunlight that passed through this spider’s web projected the colours of the rainbow, and the water that flowed years ago came from rain deposits. What a masterful lesson from this young architect!

This covered porch, as well as being a very pleasant space, allows easy access into the house. For security reasons, certain mechanisms that we suspect were to block the passage using bars, are hidden inside the door posts. You can ask one of the guides to show you.

The tilting blinds also help regulate the light which comes in and the circulation of air both inside the covered porch and the dining room.

If you like, sit back and relax again, listen to the water and think of other Gaudí buildings where nature is present. It’s in all of them, isn’t it? Casa Vicens was the very first.

To continue the tour you can return to the dining room and from there continue into the smoking room, located on your left-hand side. The audio guide photograph will help you orientate yourself.

It’s such a curious space, isn’t it? The audio guide doesn’t allow us to reproduce what it may have smelled like, but we are certain it would have been smoke. This room is a smoking room, which is a type of room very fashionable in the bourgeois houses of 19th Century Europe. If you look at the photograph we have included, you will get an idea of how it was when it was furnished. Can you imagine Manuel Vicens and his friends, chatting and smoking in this room? Years later, Gaudí will come to build a much larger one in Palau Güell. (We can hear men having a conversation in the background).

We’re not able to smell the air or hear the conversations which took place in this space reserved exclusively for men, but we can experience its atmosphere, of Arabian influences, which conjure up images of a desert night: the blue colour of the ceiling is reminiscent of the sky and the muqarnas replicate palm leaves filled with dates. It is a small oriental oasis for private use.

It is decorated using papier-mâché, an innovative decorative material. It was patented shortly after the construction of the house and grew in popularity during the Modernism era.

During the study into the restoration, the gold colour of the muqarnas was found not to be the original. The restorers spent months working in this small space to recover the original blue polychrome. Now we will show you part of the walls and ceiling which feature this blue, but you will also be able to see the gold colour that was present before the restoration.

Our tour will continue on the first floor.

We invite you to visit the pink room. It can be accessed through the door to the left of the staircase. It is thought to be the bedroom of Vicens and Giralt’s daughter. If you look carefully you will see that the pink tone is present both on the walls and floor of the room, proving that the young architect was already passionate about detail. He uses the pigments on the walls to colour the flooring, therefore achieving chromatic unity in each of the bedrooms on this floor.

Before going into the bathroom area, take a good look at the hallway. You won’t see many others like this. Since the house does not have much space, Gaudí avoids the use of corridors with these ingenious hexagonal hallways. A new example of both functional boldness and aesthetics.

Most late 19th Century households in Barcelona did not have running water. Casa Vicens, however, is once again ahead of its time in this respect. Antoni Gaudí not only designs a pioneering bathing area with running water, but also divides it into different sections: a bathroom, dressing room and lavatory.

Now look upwards and observe the foliage that decorates the ceiling. Does it remind you of anything? It’s the same plant that you saw on the walls of the dining room. The architect subtly connects the two floors of the house with ivy which spreads through the floor underneath you and climbs up to where you are now.

We suggest you continue your tour in the main bedroom, which is next to the bathroom area.

You are now in the largest room on this floor. It is divided into two halves which feature different colours and plant decoration. It looks like two rooms in one, don’t you think? Originally the main bedroom was divided into two interconnecting rooms, one for each spouse. At the time this separation was very common in the homes of the affluent classes. Gaudí also personalises them with very different ornamental designs.

The bedroom ceiling is also filled with vegetation. As in almost all the rooms on the first and second floors, the architect uses the space between the beams to place ceramic coffers which are inspired by nature.

If you go towards the windows you will see that to access the outdoor area you have to go down a couple of steps. With this bold detail, Antoni Gaudí succeeds in making the railing lower than usual so as not to restrict the view of the garden from inside the room.

Do you fancy stepping out onto the terrace?

Once again, you find yourself in a space designed as a connecting point between the interior and exterior of the building. The bench-railing around the perimeter allows you to contemplate the garden’s vegetation in tranquillity and comfort. It is an architectural element which Gaudí uses for the first time in Casa Vicens and that he will later reproduce in other works, such as El Capricho or La Pedrera.

Bear in mind that the views have changed a lot over time. When the property was built, none of the buildings around you existed. Instead there were flower beds, palm trees and palmettos, and in the background, a viewpoint and a spectacular exposed brick waterfall (we can hear birds and the sound of the waterfall in the background). An ingenious solution ensuring that feeling of freshness which is so important in a summer house.

Now, if you like, go back inside to the small room that is located to the left of the main bedroom. You will easily recognise it by its ceiling.

Antoni Gaudí’s passion for nature went beyond just being inspired by it. The young architect wanted it to be present in each and every room. Casa Vicens was, after all, a summer residence; designed as a space for leisure and rest.

This small sitting room, in contrast to the smoking room located below, was most likely designed for women to use. Inside the dome, Gaudí has sketched of one of the towers that you will later see on the rooftop, as if the sky were visible through the ceiling of the room. The scene is so real that we can almost hear the birds fluttering. As well as this, on the balcony you will see how the lattice work enhances the intimacy of the space as it allows you to see the outside without being seen. Can you picture Dolors Giralt, Manuel Vicens’ wife, enjoying a quiet afternoon of reading here? (We hear pages of a book, the sound of water, leaves of trees that move in the wind…).
To continue with the tour, we recommend you go to the room next door, with the blue walls.

The flower represented on the walls of this room will come to be a recurring motif in the work of Antoni Gaudí. It is the passionflower, also known as the “flower of Christ”, which years later will appear in the ornamental designs of the Sagrada Familia.

This flower grew very close to where you are now. In fact, all the plants represented here at Casa Vicens were found by the architect in the surroundings of the building.

Before moving upstairs, we recommend you make your way to the staircase and spend a few minutes there.

The present staircase is not linked to Gaudí, it was built during the last restoration in 2014. We have little information about the original.

With the extension done by Serra de Martínez, the Catalan vaulted staircase originally connecting the floors of the house was demolished. What did it look like? Was it inspired by nature? Was it purely traditional in its appearance or did it have more of an exotic feel? The grey stucco that makes up the wainscoting is the only remaining evidence of it.

You will find it on the wall that separates the blue room from the new descending staircase, just above the handrail. The audio guide photography can help you locate it.

Now, if you like, continue to the upper floor.

By this point in the tour you should know the house quite well. What’s more, you will now have more of an understanding of who this young Gaudí was, the man to whom Manuel Vicens commissioned his first great project. But have you stopped to think about the context in which it was done?

What was Barcelona like at that time? What did its citizens aspire to? What cultural trends were emerging? At the end of the 19th Century, Catalonia was experiencing a moment of transformation and artistic splendour. As its capital demolished walls and underwent an expansion, the foundations of Modernism took hold, driven by the intellectual buzz of Catalan collectives. Meanwhile, the Gold Rush was making the wealthy classes prosper and as a result, Catalan industry did too.

This audio visual is a journey into the past. It alternates between three languages: Catalan, Spanish and English. We hope you enjoy it and that it can help you delve a little deeper into the soul of Casa Vicens and its ties to Barcelona.

Once the screening is over, we suggest you move to the other end of the room, just in front of the lift. A very special piece awaits you there.

This text is an exact replica of one of the few writings by Antoni Gaudí that still remain. It’s a good way to understand the architect’s complex personality: fast, strong handwriting and a desire for perfection. Look closely at the capital letter at the beginning of the document and at the number of amendments made to the text. One can assume that this is a draft that was never published.

Gaudí did not give it a title, but specialists call it the Manuscript of Reus or The Manor House, since in it he reflects on what an ideal home is and also describes how family homes were disappearing from an ever-expanding city.

In the first paragraph of this text, the architect makes a true declaration about his idea of the family and the home, though now the phrases need to be understood within the context of the time.

After getting to know the artist’s personality a little better, we invite you to discover another part of Casa Vicens. Just walk forwards a few metres and head towards the area with the scale models.

Perhaps you are wondering where the references to vegetation, the colours and the architectural decorations are. Elements which, until now, have played such a central role. The top floor of the house was intended for domestic service, as was common in the bourgeois homes of the era. Gaudí designs the space according to their needs, as reflected through its sobriety and simplicity.

The architect designs this room as the thermal regulator of the building. The high ceilings guaranteed comfort for the rest of the house, their transparency and the openings around the perimeter were necessary for free-flowing ventilation. These solutions respond to the hygiene trend of the 19th Century, and the awareness of the lack of sanitation in cities.

Gaudí will come to use all these resources again in spaces which include the attic of the Torre Bellesguard and Palau Güell.

Can you see the largest scale model of all, located in the centre of the room? This model allows a perfect visualisation of the original Casa Vicens. The distribution of the spaces, the dimensions of the garden, the location of the property in relation to the site… Did you notice that in the past the land surrounded the three façades of the building? Years after finishing the construction of the house, Barcelona City Council ordered the street to be widened, just where you accessed the house. This profoundly affected the property, and the perimeter wall ended up being completely attached to one of the façades.

Take your time and look at the scale model in detail. Can you see that there are several elements which relate to water? Antoni Gaudí was a lover of water. The architect integrates it into his work by way of three constructions: the fountain in the covered porch, the fountain that is close to the main entrance to the house and the spectacular waterfall that presided over the garden. He uses the underground water channels that pass through the earth, giving new life to the garden setting.

In the Museu de les Aigües you can visit a full-scale reproduction of this waterfall.

Behind this scale model is a smaller one. It represents Casa Vicens in 1927.

This was the house after the Serra de Martínez renovations. You can see the extension of the site, the waterfall and a small, isolated fountain, located in the south-east area of the garden. It is the fountain from the covered porch, moved into the garden because of the renovation work.

Perhaps what most catches your eye is the construction visible at the furthest point from the house. It was a chapel which contained a mineral water fountain. Because of its healing properties, it was dedicated to the patron saint of impossible causes, Saint Rita.

If today is the 22nd of May, you will have noticed that Casa Vicens is filled with roses, as it is the day of Saint Rita. If you haven’t been so lucky, we invite you to come back and share this day with us and all the residents of the Gràcia neighbourhood.

Now, if you like, continue to the top floor.

We are nearing the end of our tour. In this space we can once again see the difference between Gaudí’s construction and the Serra de Martínez extension. The area you are able to walk on belongs to the extension, and the part that is restricted due to its fragility is the original one.

But before we talk about Gaudí’s rooftop, take a look around you…

When Manuel Vicens and Gaudí chose this place to build a summer house, it looked very different to how it does now. Years ago, the perimeter of the garden was bigger, and from here you could see hilltops, mountains and maybe even the Josepets church in Gràcia. The sound of the place was also very different. (We can hear birds and the bell of a distant tram).

These sounds, which transport us back to the end of the 19th Century, give us a greater understanding of Antoni Gaudí’s rooftop. It was used to collect water, but you could also walk over it. Pay attention to the walkways, the chimneys, the tower and the stairs. It is a rooftop which you can walk on, with a kind of winding, circular route. Perhaps you have already been to La Pedrera and walked on the rooftop there. Here Gaudí is again showing advances in architectural solutions that he will apply to subsequent builds such as La Pedrera, Casa Batlló or Palau Güell.

Here we conclude our tour. Casa Vicens is essentially a manifesto house; one which is ahead of its time. These are the foundations upon which Antoni Gaudí would become one of the most revolutionary architects of all time. When the building was completed in 1885, Modernism was arriving in Catalonia.

We greatly appreciate your attention and your company. The audio guide will now give you information about the temporary exhibition and also about the store in the basement, which we recommend visiting. To get to the temporary exhibition, go down to the first floor and turn right.

The space where the store is located was the old storage room of the house. Antoni Gaudí is aware of the needs of each room, and here he designs a functional space which is able to remain cool and ventilated despite it being below ground.

The ceiling is Catalan vault, a traditional technique that the architect will go on to use in many of his later works. It can also be found in the crypt of Colonia Güell or the Sagrada Familia.

Before leaving, we invite you to take a walk around the room and enjoy the audio visual, which shows some aspects of the house’s restoration and rehabilitation.

If you like, you can return to the garden, to the café, or towards the exit through the door next to the cash desk.