Antoni Gaudi was pride of Barcelona
It may come as a surprise that Barcelona's most famous resident, Antoni Gaudi, 1852-1926, was such a recluse and shabby dresser in his later life that when he was run over by a tram in 1926, no one recognized him and taxi drivers refused to take the poor vagabond to the hospital. When his friends discovered him the next day in a pauper's hospital and tried to move him to a better facility, he refused, saying he wanted to stay among the poor. Gaudi died at 74. Half of Barcelona dressed in black to honor him. He was buried in a crypt in his beloved Sagrada Familia.
Gaudi is considered an architectural genius who belonged to the Modernist or Art Nouveau style. He took his inspiration from nature to create highly unique and individualistic designs. Gaudi was a devout Catholic, who after the construction of the Park Guell, resolved to devote his energies solely non-secular works. He worked almost exclusively on the Sagrada Familia in his later years.
The young Gaudi designed buildings in a Gothic style but he soon developed his own individualistic expression. His signature work, the Sagrada Familia, is mesmerizing for its bizarre mix of Gothic and modernist elements.
Gaudi's work was originally ridiculed but he found commissions from rich industrialists. He reached the peak of his career in 1910 but a series of personal tragedies caused him to withdraw from society. He refused to be photographed or interviewed in his later years.
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