The Guell park is one of the most intriguing parks in the world
This popular park started out as a development project. Eusebi Guëll, a well known Catalan industrialist, acquired a 17ha / 42acre large hilly plot in the Grà cia district, north of Barcelona. He wanted to turn the area into a residential garden village based on English models. 60 Housing units as well as several public buildings were planned.
In 1900 Guëll commissioned his friend and protégé Antoni Gaudà with the development of the project. With the support from other architects including Josep M. Jujol and his disciple Francesc Berenguer, Gaudà worked on the garden village until 1914 when it was clear the project was a commercial failure: Guëll failed to sell a single house. In 1918 the city acquired the property and in 1922 it was opened to the public as a park. The serpentine bench at Guell Park that encircles the main ground is one of the most unique features of this Alice in Wonderland-like park. Set with mosaic tiles, the serpentine bench at Guell Park provides a resting place around the main ground where pick up soccer games and impromptu yoga sessions are held.
But the serpentine bench at Guell Park is among the milder features in an array of hallucinatory fixtures that includes gingerbread gatehouses topped with red and white wild mushrooms, pavilions of contorted stone, a vast hall of columns, and the coup de grace, a giant decorative lizard.
