After the Music Palace, we visited Guell Palace (Palau Guell). It reminded us of a different time period, with heavy stone that seemed more at home in an English castle.

The Palace was designed by Antoni Gaudi for an industrial tycoon, politician and patron of the arts Duke Eusebi Guell. It was built between 1886-1890. In 1945, Guell’s youngest daughter donated the building to Barcelona and in 1984 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The home is centered around the main room for entertaining high society guests. Guests entered the home in horse-drawn carriages through large front iron gates, they then went down spiral ramps to the basement area which had stables and areas for the horses and carriages.

We couldn’t get a good picture of the spiral ramp due to the darkness. Here is a picture of the basement area – the spiral ramp is on the right side of this picture. We couldn’t get a pic to show how large this basement is! Visiting servants also stayed down in the basement with the horses.

There were decorative touches around the basement, such as this neat dog…

The guests would go upstairs to the ground floor receiving area. In the picture below, you can see the gates that led in from the road along the back. The horses went straight and on down into the basement via the spiral ramp (in on one side and out on the other). This staircase with red carpeting took the residents and guests up to the next floor (the main floor).

After being greeted, guests would go up these stairs to the main floor, on the 2nd story. This floor was used for entertaining guests. It had a large open 3-story atrium in the center, which was used for balls and concerts. Smaller entertaining rooms surrounded this atrium.

This room, used to receive the guests before they went up to the main floor, gives you an idea how luxurious this home was! Marble, granite, limestone – it’s all used in this home – even on the ceiling!

This is part of a room that faces the back of the building. Beautiful marble columns were found in many of the rooms.

Surprisingly, this is the exterior of the above bay windows. To me, this didn’t fit in to the rest of this building’s design – it looks so different. More industrial vs luxurious like the rest of the home.

Back inside, here’s the large dining room with more marble columns and wood work.

The wealthy back in these times decorated everything, including the ceilings. Here is a very detailed wood ceiling…

And another interesting detail on one of the doors.

Finally, as usual, Gaudi decorated everything, including the basics on the roof! These are the colorful tops of the home’s 20 chimneys.

I’m not sure what this was, but it is interesting looking. 😉

After Guell Palace, we walked around Barcelona. Eventually, we checked out one of the markets where you can get produce, fish and lots of tapas plates to eat. Yum!