Private Sant Pau Art Nouveau site & Labyrinth Park tour
Resum
Detalls del tour
- Duration: 4 hours approx.
- Departure: Choose the time and we will meet you at your hotel or wherever suits you best.
- Guide: Friendly and knowledgeble guide expert
- Transport: Deluxe Sedan or Minivan depending on numbers
- Price: From 570 €
- Itinerary: Pick-up at your hotel > Sant Pau, recinte modernista entrance tickets fees > Labyrinth Park in Horta > Vall d’Hebron > Vila d’Horta
A tenir en compte
- Please note that we can customise this tour according to your desires.
Què esperar del tour
The district of Horta-Guinardó has its own character mainly due to the Vila d’Horta, an independent town until 1904. Its main activities, farming and laundry, defined the landscape of the district until it was joined to Barcelona and extended during the Olympic Games.
You will visit :
Sant Pau, recinte modernista
The architect Lluís Domènech i Muntaner built a new hospital for the fast growing Barcelona, designed in 1902 and inaugurated in 1930. It is an astonishing Art Nouveau site with 48 pavilions connected by underground passages. Declared World Heritage Site by the UNESCO, in 2009 the hospital facilities moved to new premises and, after a thorough restoration, the Modernista complex is now an international centre for knowledge and a new cultural landmark.
Parc del Laberint
Originally a private garden, it was designed in 1792 to become an example of artistic gardening. It is full of romantic and neo-classical details, with flower beds, small squares, tall trees and a waterfall. The most outstanding element is the maze, created from pollarded cypress trees.
Vall d’Hebron
It is an example on how the Olympic Games were integrated in the city of Barcelona, it has several Olympic sport equipments still used nowadays and the journalists’ residents were converted into households. There are also outstanding contemporary sculptures like the “Mistos”, the giant matchbox.
Vila d’Horta
This neighborhood has maintained the character of a town, as it was independent from Barcelona until 1904. We will visit the plaça Eivissa, the central meeting point in Horta, historical cafes and the local market.
Opinions
Check our reviews and see what our customers say about this tour.
Publicat per Rowan916 - 15 Jun 2015
“World heritage site off the beaten track in Barcelona” 5/5 stars
By some great fortune, we learned of a new tour offered by the Barcelona Bureau of Tourism: the Labyrinth Tour, which actually includes multiple sites in the Horta district of Barcelona. Beginning with a convenient tour bus pickup at Placa Catalunya, the first stop was the Unesco World Heritage site of the hospital complex of Sant Pau, within direct sight of the Sagrada Familia. The complex, whose function has been replaced by an adjacent modern hospital, is a marvel of ornamental yet thoughtful genius by Gaudi's primary architectural competitor, Lluis Domènech i Muntaner. Domenech got the commission for the hospital and Gaudi did not, but the results are magnificent and enthralling, both inside and out. The central surgery building and the constellation of administrative and patient pavilions, men's pavilions on one side and women's on the other, are stylistically cohesive and imaginative with a myriad of details and variations in tile, form and sculpture in the art nouveau/neo-gothic traditions. Sounds incoherent, but it really works. It is simply breathtaking.
The second site visited on the tour was the former estate and gardens of the Desvalls family, including romantic and classical gardens and an elaborate labyrinth on a hillside overlooking Barcelona and the sea. The old mansion appears nearly derelict but still charming, and the heavily wooded property and gardens are exquisite and refreshing. Fountains, classical sculpture, and formal plantings contribute to the serenity of the site. It should be mentioned that neither the Sant Pau hospital complex nor the Labyrinth gardens seem not to be on the highway of tourist destinations in Barcelona… we were not part of a dense pack of tourists at any point in this tour, which was refreshing in itself.
Finally, we drove through the Horta district to the core of the village of Horta where we again left the bus and strolled through the old town and market. Although since swallowed up by Barcelona's urban growth, Horta was a town of gardens and laundries that serviced Barcelona well into the mid-20th century. Much of the village charm endures.
This tour was excellent, and I highly commend the Barcelona Tourist Bureau for its conception – it is another way to learn about Barcelona and its history as well as its remarkable architectural legacy.
Visited May 2015
Reviewed on tripadvisor by Rowan from Oregon, USA