Gaudí’s footprint

The highlights of the gardens are the two pieces by Antoni Gaudí: a lath house —a pergola covered in climbing plants— and the Font d’Hèrcules, the fountain of Heracles, which the Catalan architect created for Eusebi Güell. The Font d’Hèrcules is located in a bamboo copse, and has a wrought iron spout in the shape of a dragon’s head from where the water flows.For many years it remained hidden by vegetation, and was only discovered in 1984 during cleaning work.

The kolonihaven

A modern artistic twist is provided by the Kolonihaven, a children’s play house designed by architects Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue to celebrate the European cultural capital, Copenhagen. But the park is home to other sculptures, like Nu femení agenollat (Nude female kneeling), by Joan Borrell i Nicolau; Mediterrània (Mediterranean) by Eulàlia Fàbregas de Sentmenat, and Nu (Nude) a bronze by Enric Casanovas (1930).

The origin of the gardens goes back to a fire that in 1875 destroyed the royal family’s Barcelona residence, situated in the flat area of the Palau. The new royal residence, built in 1921, was sponsored by the then Mayor of Barcelona Joan Antoni Güell, and the Güell family donated a plot of land on which it could be built.