Antoni was the youngest of five siblings. His father was a coppersmith like his father and grandfather before him. He taught his son how to form volume and shapes and how to transform two dimensions into three. It’s almost certain that being surrounded by that level of craftsmanship influenced Gaudí’s architectural style later down the line.

Young Gaudí suffered from rheumatism, which meant he missed a lot of school and instead spent hour upon hour at the family’s cottage in Riudoms, where he would stare intently at the flora and fauna. This period of his life had such an impact on him, leading him to incorporate nature in his designs like no other architect.

When Gaudí was a teenager, his whole family moved to Barcelona with their sights set on better prospects for the children’s education. He soon got into the swing of city life, mixing with high society in bars and theatres and dressing like a dandy with his expensive clothes, hats and gloves. What a contrast to his final years! But we’ll come back to that later…

We often think of Gaudí as an unsociable, unpleasant man who was gruff and arrogant. And yet the people closest to him always described him as a friendly, polite and honest person they could have a good conversation with. Having lived in several apartments in Barcelona’s old town and later in Eixample, he moved into what is now the Gaudí House Museum in Park Güell. He lived there with his father and sick niece, who he looked after until she sadly passed away.

In reality, Antoni Gaudí’s life was exceptionally dull. He never married and he had no children. It was almost as though he needed to sacrifice everything and live a modest life in order to create such innovative works of architecture and bring all those highly decorative elements to life.
When he was living at the Sagrada Família, he was more of a loner than ever before. He lived a modest life in silence and ate a vegetarian diet. He wore the same clothes day in, day out until they resembled the scruffy rags of a pauper. Long gone were his days as a dandy!

In fact, he looked so much like a beggar that the driver of the tram that hit him by accident on 7 June 1926 didn’t stop and left Gaudí lying in the street. He was seriously injured and died three days later after he refused treatment at a private clinic, instead choosing to remain in a hospital for the poor.

Large crowds gathered for his funeral, which just goes to show that he was highly regarded as an architect and person even during his lifetime. He was buried in the Sagrada Família crypt, one of the few parts of the church that he saw finished. At least there was a happy ending of sorts after so much tragedy!