The secret Palau Güell, a unique and nocturnal visit to discover its most unknown corners

« The secret Palau Güell » will show you rooms usually not accessible to the public / Barcelona Provincial Council

Every second Saturday of the month, starting at 8:30 p.m., the Palau Güell opens its doors to a small number of visitors to carry out the activity "The secret Palau Güell", a guided tour that allows you to discover some spaces of this masterpiece by Gaudí that are normally closed to the public.

Eusebi Güell, industrialist, politician and patron, commissioned Antoni Gaudí in 1886 to build the Palau to settle there with his wife, Isabel López, daughter of the Marquis of Comillas, and their ten children. The architect designed a functional building with very innovative details for the time, designed to facilitate the family's daily life.

The spectacular rooftop of the Palau Güell with its multicolored chimneys / Ramon Manent - Barcelona Provincial Council

In the stables, for example, you can see the remains of the modern elevator mechanisms and electricity system that were installed in the house. The central hall, which was conceived as a multifunctional space - concerts, cultural and literary evenings, religious services and social receptions were held there - has especially careful acoustics, because two of Güell's daughters, Isabel and Maria Lluïsa, played music, and because he himself wanted to have his own organ in his home, an instrument often present only in churches. From this organ you will be able to admire the original console by Aquilino Amezua and, exclusively during the night visit, you will observe the transmission rods of the keyboard and the two bellows with which members of the service blew air to make it sound.

Original image of the organ pipes of the Palau Güell / Ramon Manent - Barcelona Provincial Council

Other surprising spaces that you will visit during the tour are: Eusebi Güell's office, with a magnificent fireplace by Camil Oliveras; the space where his library of more than 5,000 volumes was located, with a curious sink right at the entrance; the Llevant patio, with the doll's house where the daughters played; or the spectacular roof terrace with its multicolored chimneys.

The graffiti room, historical testimony of turbulent times and repression

This visit, full of surprises, includes a very unique room: the old warehouse room of the Güell coachman, transformed between 1938 and 1942 into the dungeon of the police station of the then officially called Fifth District and, popularly, “Chinatown.” On the walls of this room, the detainees left numerous inscriptions that reflect in a very impressive way those turbulent times and repression.

The coachman's room is a space usually closed to the public, due to the fragility of the heritage it houses and its small dimensions - only sixteen square meters. Located mid-height between the ground floor and the underground stables, it was conceived as the storage room for the family coachman and presents on three of its walls a total of 185 graffiti and engravings, currently studied and catalogued.

When the war broke out in 1936, the Palau Güell was requisitioned and converted into the headquarters of the Single Public Services Union of Municipal Officials of the CNT. On May 5, 1937, the Generalitat protected it as a historical monument, protection that it lost in January 1939 and that it did not recover until thirty years later.

International Anti-Fascist Solidarity took over the building in September 1937 and it appears that at that time the room was used as a detention space. Starting in July 1938, the Atarazanas District police station was installed in the Palau Güell, and the coachman's room became the cell.

The detainees of this period - apart from common criminals - were often anarchists or people sympathizing with the rebel side, and they left their mark on the walls of the room with the initials of the CNT-AIT, the ones, and with emblems of the Spanish Falange and “long live Franco and Spain”, the others.

With the entry of Franco's troops on January 26, 1939, the Palau Güell continued to house the district police station, but the political sign of the victims of repression changed. Graffiti from the time includes “Long live the Republic, Liberty and Pepa” (the Constitution).

Several of the graffiti refer to robberies or violent acts and, sometimes, even express gratitude for the treatment received at the police station. A few report arrests for homosexuality, testifying to the harsh sexual repression of those dark times.

All the inscriptions are written in Spanish, although two of them refer to the prohibition of speaking Catalan: “If you / speak Catalan to an officer / they will put you here / 1-5-41” or “Speaking beautiful Catalan is prohibited”.

The graffiti in the coachman's room is a clear testimony of the repression of very turbulent times / Barcelona Provincial Council

Although two thirds of the graffiti are textual, some of them are more graphic and represent human figures, objects, calendars... and even a Popeye and a Betty Boop.

The night visit "The Secret Palau Güell" will be very interesting for you to explore Gaudí's first great masterpiece and discover part of its history.

You will find more information and tickets at inici.palauguell.cat.

**Content offered by the Provincial Council of Barcelona**