Palau Güell

Palau Güell is the Gaudí house that surprises people most, partly because it hides in plain sight on a narrow street off La Rambla and partly because it is so unlike the sunny, colourful Gaudí of the postcards. Built in the late 1880s for Eusebi Güell, the industrialist who became the architect's lifelong patron and later gave his name to Park Güell, it was designed as a city residence grand enough to receive society and impress visitors, and Gaudí, still in his thirties, poured extraordinary resources into it. From the street you see a sober stone façade with two great parabolic doorways closed by wrought-iron gates, wide enough for carriages to drive in. Inside, the mood is rich, dark and theatrical. The carriages descended a ramp to stables in the basement, where squat, mushroom-shaped brick columns hold up the building, and the family lived above in rooms of carved wood, marble and coffered ceilings. The heart of the house is the central salon, a hall rising through several floors to a dome pierced with small holes that let in pinpoints of daylight like stars, used for concerts, gatherings and even religious services, with a chapel hidden behind wooden doors. Then you climb to the roof, and everything changes: the terrace is crowded with twenty chimneys and vents shaped like trees, cones and spirals and covered in broken-tile mosaic, the trencadís technique that became one of Gaudí's signatures, around a central spire that crowns the dome below. It is the first of his great rooftops, and seeing it after the gloom of the house is one of the finest moments in Gaudí's Barcelona. The palace belongs to the provincial government, which restored it fully and reopened it to the public in 2011.

The visit tells a story about money, power and an artist finding his independence. Güell gave Gaudí an almost free hand and an almost unlimited budget, and the palace shows what the young architect could do with both: the ironwork, the stone, the woodwork and the hidden ingenuity of features such as the ventilation shafts that channel air down through the house. It is also a portrait of how a powerful Barcelona family lived at the turn of the twentieth century, from the stables to the private apartments. Palau Güell is part of the UNESCO World Heritage listing of Gaudí's works, and it is one of only a handful of his buildings where you can see a complete interior from his early career.

Visiting well: tickets are timed but rarely sell out far in advance, which makes Palau Güell a useful fallback when other Gaudí slots are gone. The included audio guide is thorough, and you need about an hour to an hour and a half. The roof may close in rain or strong wind, so a dry day is best, and the climb involves stairs. Check opening days before you go, as the palace closes one day a week, traditionally Mondays, and hours are shorter in winter.

The neighbourhood deserves a word. Carrer Nou de la Rambla runs into El Raval, a dense, multicultural and sometimes rough-edged quarter that is changing fast; the area around the palace is busy and generally fine by day, but keep an eye on bags, as you would on La Rambla. The palace is a few minutes' walk from the Liceu metro station and the Boqueria market, so it slots easily into a morning in the old city: the Boqueria for a counter breakfast, Palau Güell at opening time, then across La Rambla into the Gothic Quarter. For anyone who loves Gaudí, it completes the picture that the famous houses on Passeig de Gràcia begin.