Leave the rest of the world queuing to see the Sagrada Família, Casa Batlló or one of the other works of the great Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí and take a train 30km north to the coastal town of Mataró, to see where it all began.

The Nau Gaudí, commissioned by the local textile workers’ co-op when he was still a student, is Gaudi’s first work. It is also one of the few projects not commissioned by the Catholic church or a wealthy patron. Though a simple wood-framed warehouse designed for bleaching cotton, it has an elegant structure based on a parabolic arch, the hallmark of Gaudí’s later work, developed to perfection in the Palau Guëll mansion and La Pedrera apartment building.

In the courtyard, the brick arches and tiling of the charming, circular service building are a foretaste of the mudejar-style Casa Vicens, the first home Gaudí designed. With the decline of the local textile industry, the Nau fell into disrepair until work began on refurbishing it in 2002, to mark the 150th anniversary of the architect’s birth.

Photograph: Sergio Ruiz

It is now an art gallery displaying contemporary Catalan art from the collection of Llluís Bassat, who made his fortune in advertising. However, until January 2016, the Nau Gaudí is presenting an extraordinary exhibition of non-conformist Russian art from the1960s and 70s, works that are rarely seen because almost all are in the hands of private collectors.

• bassatgaudimataro.ca, free, open Tues-Sat 5pm-8pm, Sun 11am-2pm. The Nau is five minutes’ walk from Mataró station and a short stroll from the town’s excellent seafood restaurants. Trains leave Barcelona’s Plaça de Catalunya station every 10 minutes