Panel 3 

Forms in Gaudí

“We possess the image. Fantasy comes from ghosts. Fantasy comes from the people of the north. We are concrete. The image is of the Mediterranean. Orestes knows where he is going, while Hamlet wanders, lost in doubt.” 
Antoni Gaudí

Look for a snail and imagine it in Gaudí’s hands. A snail suggests many ideas for working with wrought iron, for placing the lights on the ceilings, for the winding staircases. Snails make excellent pinnacles.

With these images from his childhood in the streets and village of Riudoms, Gaudí constructed architecture from nature.

Spending much of his life spent in poor health, with lung disease and rheumatism, Antoni Gaudí became a cultured man. He read a great deal and both his memory and his exceptionally brilliant capacity for observation preserved the images that his reason had retained.

The forms in Gaudí’s work are the fruit of these vital influences: from the Arab or Nasrid-inspired lines of the Casa Vicens to the sinuousness of La Pedrera, Gaudí is inspired by simple forms and extracts elements that obey no constructive tradition. They occur logically, which is why they are understood.

The Nebot family birthplace

Birthplace of the anti-Bourbon military men of the Nebot lineage who took part in the War of the Spanish Succession, including General Rafael de Nebot Font (1665-1733).

After many years in abandoned ruin, the building was refurbished in 1880 as a leisure complex, which remained until 1960. The whole building was renovated in the 1950s by the architect, Francesc Adell Ferré, with the Gothic windows on the façade and tribune being particularly noteworthy.

Antoni Gaudí used to pass in front of this unique building, where the Café de Cal Gallisà was located at the time. He knew Joanet who ran the café during his youth. What relationship did they have?

The Gaudí Family and Riudoms

In 1634, a young salesman of Occitan origin, Joan Gaudí, (originally Gaudin) married Maria Escura Ferré in Riudoms. He was the son of Antoni and Joana and was known as Joan Gaudí d’Auvèrnia. Occitan migrations in Catalonia were frequent. The overpopulation in the south of France, the search for richer areas where there were fewer people and where salaries were higher, as well as the wars between Catholics and Huguenots, pushed the Gaudís to leave Saint Quintin sur Sioule, for the bishopric of Clermont-Ferrand, and to settle in Riudoms, Tarragona.

*Clarmont d’Alvèrnia, Clermont-Ferrand (Fr), Clarmont d’Auvernha (Oc) Town of Alvèrnia, Occitania, capital of the department of Puèi Domat, France.