Gaudí and the Modernistas: the back story

About Gaudí and the Modernistas: the back story

By the ULTIMATE Barcelona Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

When Barcelona tore down its medieval walls in the 19th century, the city spread across the plain in Ildefons Cerdà’s grid, the Eixample. Its wealthy new residents commissioned houses from a generation of architects, Antoni Gaudí, Lluís Domènech i Montaner and Josep Puig i Cadafalch among them, and the style they made, Modernisme, is Barcelona’s signature.

UNESCO

Buildings by Gaudí, among them Park Güell, Casa Milà, Casa Batlló, Casa Vicens and the Nativity façade and crypt of the Sagrada Família, are inscribed together on UNESCO’s World Heritage List as the Works of Antoni Gaudí. Domènech i Montaner’s Palau de la Música Catalana and Hospital de Sant Pau are inscribed too.

The Sagrada Família

Gaudí worked on the basilica until his death in 1926, and it is still being completed. On 10 June 2026, the centenary of his death, the central Tower of Jesus Christ was blessed and inaugurated; work inside the tower continues.

Book every Gaudí visit on the official sites, never through resellers.

Passeig de Gràcia

Casa Batlló, at number 43, and Casa Milà, La Pedrera, at number 92, are a short walk apart on the city’s grandest avenue.

Domènech i Montaner

The Palau de la Música Catalana, a concert hall of stained glass and mosaic, and the Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau, a hospital built as a garden city of pavilions, are both open to visitors.

Our advice: take the first morning slot at the Sagrada Família, and keep the late afternoon for Park Güell.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Gaudí and the Modernistas: the back story before you go.