Palau Güell

Palau Güell, built between 1886 and 1890, was Gaudí's first major commission for industrialist Eusebi Güell, the patron who would go on to fund Park Güell and support Gaudí for the rest of his career. Tucked onto a narrow street just off La Rambla in the Raval district, the building had to be squeezed onto a tight urban plot rather than a spacious estate, which forced Gaudí into a more vertical, compressed design than his later, more expansive work.

The facade is austere and fortress-like by Gaudí's later standards — two parabolic-arched entrances framed in wrought iron were designed wide and tall enough for carriages to pass directly through into the building. Inside, though, the building opens up dramatically: a soaring central hall rises through the full height of the building to a domed roof pierced with small conical openings that scatter starlight-like points of light downward, a lighting technique that anticipates the Sagrada Família's own light effects decades later.