Güell Pavilions

Count Eusebi Güell, a great patron of Gaudí, commissioned him to remodel Torre Satalia, a Caribbean-style mansion located on an estate in the Les Corts district of the small town of Sarrià (now part of Barcelona). The estate included two pieces of land known as Can Feliu and Can Cuyàs de la Riera. Gaudí's teacher, architect Joan Martorell i Montells, had built Torre Satalia, and Gaudí was tasked with renovating the house and building a perimeter wall with gates.

Gaudí proposed an Orientalist design for the wall, reminiscent of Mudejar art. The wall included several gates, with the main gate being a wrought-iron grille in the shape of a dragon with glass eyes, representing Ladon, the dragon that guarded the Garden of the Hesperides. The dragon corresponded with the position of the stars in the Serpens constellation, as Ladon was turned into a snake as punishment for stealing oranges. An antimony orange-tree was also placed over the dragon, referencing the Hesperides. The other three entrances to the estate became obsolete with the construction of Avinguda Diagonal.

The Pavilions on the estate consisted of a stable, longeing ring, and gatehouses. The stable had a rectangular shape and was roofed with a high Catalan vault adopting a catenary curve. The longeing ring had a square ground-plan, surmounted by a hyperboloid dome topped by an ornamental lantern. The gatehouses were made up of three small buildings, with the central one being polygonal in plan and the others cuboidal. All three were topped by ventilators in the form of chimneys, faced with ceramics. The buildings were constructed of brick in a range of shades from red to yellow, with coloured glass and prefabricated cement blocks used in certain sections.

Gaudí also played a role in the design of the estate's gardens, where he built two fountains and a pergola and planted various Mediterranean species such as pines, eucalyptus, palms, cypresses, and magnolias. The “Fountain of Hercules” is still standing near the Palau Reial de Pedralbes, restored in 1983, consisting of a bust of Hercules atop a basin with the coat of arms of Catalonia and a spout in the shape of a Chinese dragon.

The Pavellons Güell were declared a Monument of National Historic and Artistic Interest in 1969. They currently serve as the headquarters of the Royal Gaudí Chair, affiliated with the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, and the site also includes the Botanic Garden of the Faculty of Biology.