History of Colonia Güell and the factory
The development of Colonia Güell began in 1890 at the initiative of businessman Eusebi Güell on his Can Soler de la Torre estate, located in the municipality of Santa Coloma de Cervelló, current Baix Llobregat region.
The interest in getting away from the existing social conflicts in the city meant that the new industry was considered within the framework of an industrial colony; with the workers' houses next to the factory, integrated into the same property, constituting a urban center with its own personality and with their social and economic life supervised by the company.
Industrial colonies were conceived as socioeconomic organizations whose main purpose was industrial production. The factory occupied most of the time of the men and women of the colony and for them it was the guarantee of a regular salary in times of economic precariousness.
Unlike the vast majority of industrial colonies in Catalonia, Eusebi Güell sought social improvements for workers and applied his status as a patron of culture. For this reason he provided Colonia Güell with cultural and religious facilities and incorporated the modernist trend into new constructions, commissioning projects from various architects and, specifically, Antoni Gaudí for the construction of the church.
Colonia Güell during the 20th century
Over the years, The union movement and workers' demands reached the Colony. At the beginning of the Civil War The factory was collectivized and managed by the workers. Once the conflict was over, it was restored and the Güell family sold it to the Bertrand i Serra family in 1945. During the following years, the Colony continued industrial production and maintained the personality of the urban center distinct from the town of Santa Coloma de Cervelló. The latter continued to grow in population and surpassed that of the Colony in the 60s.
Colonia Güell remained outside the exorbitant urban growth of the 60s and 70s, remaining an almost compact property that continued to have industrial production as its priority objective. Within the framework of the crisis in the textile sector in 1973, the factory ceased its activity, producing a great social impact in the Colony. During the following years the property was sold: the factory in fractions to various companies, the houses to its inhabitants and the surrounding facilities and land to public institutions.
A Cultural
In 1990, the Colonia Güell complex was declared A Cultural– Historical Complex, establishing the protection of the most relevant buildings as well as the general characteristics of the building.
In the years from the turn of the 2002th century to the XNUMXst, the rehabilitation of the factory buildings, the church, the old cooperative and the Joan Güell square began, as well as the improvement of the surrounding pine forests. In XNUMX, on the occasion of the Gaudí year, the new parking lot for visitors was built and the organization of the visitor service to the Colonia Güell was implemented.
History of the Gaudí Crypt
Eusebi Güell gave Gaudí carte blanche for the construction of the Colonia Güell church. He did not set limits: neither in the budget, nor in the type of work nor in the deadline.
In 1898 Eusebi Güell commissioned the architect Antoni Gaudí to design project of a church for Colonia Güell. During the following years Gaudí carried out different preliminary studies that culminated in a model of the church, installed in his own workshop located on the same hill where the building would rise.
In 1908 the construction of the Temple began. However, the ambitious project that envisaged a church with two naves, lower and upper, topped by different side towers and a central dome 40 meters high, would be unfinished. In 1914, Eusebi Güell's children informed Gaudí that they would no longer finance the ongoing works and he had to abandon the project. In November of the following year, the bishop of Barcelona blessed the lower nave, the only one that was ever built, a fact that would lead to the church being popularly called a crypt.
Despite being unfinished, the church represents a highlight in Gaudí's work by including, for the first time, in a unitary manner, practically all of his architectural innovations.
World Heritage and sustainability
The Crypt was declared Heritage by UNESCO in July 2005 and in 2013 it became the first monument with this recognition to obtain the Biosphere Certification for the sustainable management of its services, a title that has been renewed to align with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. In 2018, coinciding with the European Year of Cultural Heritage, she was awarded as Best Sustainable Cultural Tourism Destination by the European Cultural Tourism Network and the Award for the Sustainability of Cultural, Natural Heritage and Traditions of Barcelona Sustainable Tourism.