The imaginary around Gaudí is closely linked to Barcelona and, to a large extent, to the Eixample that was still being laid out at the time. Works elevated to icons such as the Sagrada Familia, the Pedrera or the Casa Batlló configure a Gaudian universe where they coexist with places with less focus and further from the city, but equally essential to understand the architect's work. A little more than an hour and a half from Barcelona, in La Pobla de Lillet, one of these works winds through nature. In the heart of Berguedà, the Artigas Gardens allow visitors to discover the architect interacting and merging with the nature that served as a source of inspiration throughout his career.
Gaudí transformed a landscape of river, rock, and vegetation into a walkable work of art, into gardens that bring visitors closer to the architect's creative universe, driven by his fascination with the forms of nature. Located in a lush setting next to the Llobregat, the gardens unfold among bridges, paths, rocks, and waterfalls that dialogue with the surroundings. In this way, architecture does not impose itself on the landscape, but adapts to its forms and rhythms, with surprising corners where nature and Gaudian creativity merge. They do so throughout all the gardens, which can not only be reached by car or coach, but also in a more unique way: with the emblematic Cement Train.
A visit to the Artigas Gardens is also a gateway to the history of 20th-century industrial Catalonia, which serves as a common thread between Gaudí and, once again, the Güell family. Some years earlier, Eusebi Güell had founded the Compañía General de Asfaltos y Pórtland (Asland), and needed coal to fuel the cement factory he had in Clot del Moro, in Castellar de n'Hug. The company wanted to extract coal from a mine not far from the factory, in the Catllaràs mountain range. However, the mines were isolated and at high altitude, which is why it was decided to build accommodation for the mine's engineers and technicians. And Güell decided to commission it, once again, to Gaudí.
This commission gave shape to the Xalet de Catllaràs. Conceived as a functional residence in the middle of the mountain, the building was designed by Gaudí in 1902, when the architect was about 50 years old. More than a century later, its curved and unique silhouette still surprises and contrasts with the surrounding forest landscape, especially after the route one has to take to get there. The path is already part of the experience: a 17-kilometer circular route on foot or by bicycle starts from La Pobla de Lillet, crossing surprising and postcard-worthy landscapes of the Catllaràs mountain range. Although it presents no technical difficulties, the path can take almost five hours and includes sections with a considerable incline.
Reaching the Xalet, however, allows one to discover one of Gaudí's most unknown works. For now, only the exterior can be visited, as the interior is still awaiting restoration after decades of disuse. With the closure of the coal mines around the 1920s, Asland ceded the building to the La Pobla de Lillet City Council in 1932. Later, in 1971, it was renovated to convert it into a summer camp, but subsequent regulatory changes ended up leaving it empty again during the 1980s (not without first replacing Gaudí's unique spiral staircase with a metal structure). The recovery came in 2019, with a comprehensive restoration of the exterior that has allowed the Xalet del Catllaràs to be shown again as the architect had conceived it.
To design it, Gaudí had to stay in the area. The architect lodged in La Pobla de Lillet, at the home of another industrial family: the Artigas. The story goes that, at the end of his stay, Gaudí wanted to financially compensate the family's hospitality, but the Artigas did not accept it. Then, the architect's response was unconventional: he gave them a design to convert the land in front of the house into private gardens. In this way, a gesture of gratitude linked to another project of the Güells was transformed into one of the most singular and unknown works of the architect's legacy.
The works were carried out between 1903 and 1905, supervised by two masters from Park Güell. The Barcelona park had been under construction since 1900, at a time when iconic works by Gaudí such as the Casa Vicens and the Palau Güell had already been built. In parallel, the architect began working on emblematic projects such as Casa Batlló and La Pedrera, and had already accepted the commission for the Sagrada Familia years earlier. Thus, the Artigas Gardens took shape at a fertile moment in Gaudí's career, and shortly before he began to focus all his attention exclusively on the Sagrada Familia.
In this fertile moment, nature continues to be Gaudí's inspiration, a fact that is also reflected in the Artigas Gardens. Here, Gaudí does not impose a geometry on the landscape, but rather seems to accompany it. The paths follow the relief of the terrain, the bridges emerge between the rocks, and the structures integrate into the environment to the point that they can go unnoticed at first glance. Following the course of a Llobregat that emerges a few kilometers away, the water and its murmur are protagonists of the place, along with the organic forms covered with local stone.
Walking through the gardens allows one to approach the architect's universe at a leisurely pace, and away from crowds. However, these gardens were abandoned for decades as a result of the Civil War, and vegetation progressively covered the winding forms and structures. It was not until the late 1980s that efforts were made to recover the Artigas Gardens and reclaim them as a creation of the genius. The restoration, completed in 1997, allowed them to regain their original appearance and recover a unique piece that connects landscape, heritage, history, and architecture from Antoni Gaudí's legacy.