Barcelona to charge for admission to Gaudi landmark Parc Guell as tourist numbers rise



It is one of the most striking – and idiosyncratic – attractions in one of Europe’s most famous cities. And for the last century, it has been free to explore.

But as of next month, visitors seeking a few hours amid the curious sculptures and otherworldly flourishes of Barcelona’s Parc Guell will have to pay for the privilege.

Fabulous and fantastical: The Parc Guell is one of Barcelona's key landmarks - but visitors will now have to pay

October 1 will see the introduction of an €8 (£6.80) admission fee – as well as new restrictions on numbers entering the park. Access to the attraction will be limited to 800 people per day, partly in an attempt to protect a Unesco World Heritage site which has been open for over 100 years – and which has suffered attacks of vandalism in the past.

The decision has attracted a mixed response.

“This is a municipal [facility], not a museum or a cathedral,” a spokesman for Defensem el Parc Guell – a conservation group – told The Sunday Times. “Nobody should have to pay.”

In contrast, Xavier Fernandez, a tourism consultant, is in favour of the move.

“Frankly, it is a good idea,” he told the same newspaper.

“Tourism is pretty much the only industry that is working [in Spain] right now. So the authorities are constantly looking for new ways to raise revenue from tourists.”

The Parc is, of course, the work of the noted Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi.

Outlandish: The Parc is home to the daring creations of archiect Antoni Gaudi - including this mosaic lizard

It was built between 1900 and 1914 – although it was originally planned as an upmarket housing development, backed by aristocratic entrepreneur Eusebi Guell, who gave the project his name.

But construction failed to capture the imagination of the local wealthy, despite the area set aside for the development – a steeply sloped site three miles to the north-west of the immediate centre – proffering spectacular views of the city and the Mediterranean.

Under Gaudi’s guidance, it instead became a municipal park – though a park unlike any other. Fitted out with some of the visionary’s daring trademarks – swooping architectural curves, fantastical towers and minarets, surfaces clad in elaborate mosaics – it became one of the symbols of the city, even though tourists have to take a metro ride to reach it.

Landmarks include a multi-coloured mosaic lizard, which ‘guards’ the main entrance, and a long curving bench that curls around a viewing terrace as if impersonating a snake.

Of course, the Parc Guell is not the only monument to Gaudi in Barcelona – and supporters of the new admission charge will argue that other Gaudi buildings around the city also charge visitors for the privilege of glimpsing the great man’s handiwork.

Most notable of these is the Sagrada Familia – the fabled many-steepled church which was begun in 1882, and, notoriously, remains unfinished – the complexity of its construction having long outlasted Gaudi, who died in 1926.

Consistency? The decision to charge an admission fee for the Parc Guell (left), which comes into force at the start of October, has had a mixed response - but visitors must also pay to enter Gaudi's Sagrada Familia (right)



At the moment, the supposed year of completion is 2026, but queues for entry are always lengthy. The entry cost for tourists is €14.80 (£12.50).

Elsewhere in the city, the Casa Batlló is also visibly a Gaudi creation.

A multi-storey, many-hued townhouse, it was redesigned by Gaudi in 1904, and is open for public visits – with admission charged at €20.35 (£17.25).

Whatever the controversy over entrance fees for Parc Guell, the added cost is unlikely to dissuade tourists from travelling to Barcelona.

New figures released by the Spanish Inbound Tourist Survey (FRONTUR) show that Spain welcomed its highest number of tourists in almost 20 years over the summer.

July was the best month for inbound visitors since 1995, with 7.9 million foreign tourists arriving through the country’s ports and airports.

Catalonia was the largest beneficiary of this surge.