Park Güell began as a planned residential estate, with paths and viaducts shaped around a steep hillside. When the development failed to attract buyers, its designed landscape became a private garden and then a public park, leaving an ambitious housing plan visible in the terrain.
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The paths curve with the hillside instead of forcing it into a level grid. That choice came from the park’s first purpose: Eusebi Güell commissioned Gaudí to plan an estate for well-off families on this sloping land.
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- Eusebi Güell commissioned the estate plan from Gaudí.
- The original plan included about 60 plots; only two houses were built.
- Barcelona opened Park Güell as a municipal park in 1926.
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