Antonio Gaudi was born in Reus in 1852 and moved to Barcelona to study architecture, a discipline in which he graduated in 1878. He initially worked in some offices of renowned architects of the time.

In 1883 he was appointed architect of expiatory temple Sagrada Familia, the work that occupied all his life and what is considered as his main artistic achievement, although it ended inconclusively and without a well-defined project.

By then he also met the Count of Güell, with whom he maintained an almost Renaissance patronage. Güell commissioned first some pavilions for his property of Pedralbes and then a Palace at Nou de la Rambla st. (1886-1891), where Gaudí introduced new building elements such as the parabolic arc. Then he made the new building for the college of Las Teresianas at Ganduxer street and the Episcopal palace of Astorga, who never completed because of the death of his mentor, Bishop Juan Bautista Grau Vallespinós.

Antonio Gaudí's work is part of the modernist movement, though it far exceeds this movement with the originality of his ideas and his ability to break the mold and create new solutions.

In 1891 he started with the facade of the Nativity of the Sagrada Familia, from whose four towers only one was built until the architect's death. He also made other projects of buildings in Barcelona such as Casa Calvet, Casa Batlló and Casa Mila, better known as La Pedrera and in some ways the culmination of Gaudi's genius by the unique design of its undulating stone facade and wrought iron and the helical chimneys of the roof.

His mentor, Eusebio Güell, gave him also two new projects: a workers' colony in Santa Coloma de Cervello, of which only the church was completed (surprisingly integrated into the landscape) and a garden city, which also left unfinished and is now a public park, the beautiful and original Park Güell. 
In 1926, when he was killed by a tram, Gaudí was an architect recognized inside and outside the Spanish borders, but its unique innovative and creative genius was not universally accepted until several decades later. Today, the figure is recognized internationally and his work is among the most admired of the architecture of all time.