Krypta Colonia Güell

Santa Coloma de Cervelló, 1898-1917


Sketch drawing, church exterior, on a photograph of the chain model

Click on the thumbnails for enlargment and more info.

Antoní Gaudí , Spain

The Krypta Colonia Güell is the crypt of an unfinished church in the workers’ quarter of Santa Coloma de Cervelló, in the outer reaches of Barcelona. Two surviving drawings give an idea how the church was to have looked like.

Particularly striking is the accumulation of columns and vaults whose forms Gaudi derived from a large model of chains. The hanging chains enabled him to determine, in the simplest of ways, the optimal static form and position of the columns. The latter are often at an incline to better absorb the pressure from above and transfer it to the foundation below.

In many ways this made the Krypta into an experimental prototype for the later construction of the Sagrada Familia.

Antoní Gaudí
SPAIN
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