Gaudí’s Palace in Astorga and Gaudí’s Casa Botines Museum in León have joined, along with four other buildings by the Catalan architect, in a joint bid to make 100% of the work built by Gaudí a World Heritage Site. This alliance also includes the Torre Bellesguard Gaudí and the Teresian College in Barcelona, the Capricho de Gaudí in Comillas (Cantabria) and the Cathedral-Basilica of Santa María de Mallorca.
On June 25, coinciding with the commemoration of the 172nd anniversary of the birth of Antoni Gaudí, representatives of the six buildings signed in Barcelona a protocol of intentions that states that the advances in research, restoration and improvement in these buildings, from 2005 to the present, determine that they have acquired the necessary value to be inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. An action that takes the context of the commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the death of Antoni Gaudí in 2026. For this date, it is planned to start the Gaudí Centenary 2026 program with activities related to heritage, art, culture and education to vindicate the work of Antoni Gaudí, with special emphasis on scientific knowledge of Gaudí’s contributions. “I think we are not asking for anything that is not deserved. It is our intention that this path that we begin today shows the great architect, artist and Christian that Gaudí was. Hopefully this light that we turn on today will be to put him in his rightful place,” said the director of the Gaudí Palace, Víctor Murias, during his speech to the representatives of the other buildings on June 25.
The Gaudí Chair of the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – BarcelonaTech (UPC) will act as a reference entity in documentation and academic research on Gaudí’s work for the working group, formed by the following entities: the Cabildo Catedral de Mallorca, which manages the Cathedral-Basilica of Santa Maria de Mallorca; the Fundación Escuela Teresiana, manager of the Teresian School of Barcelona; Mucmo Gestión, managing entity of the Capricho de Gaudí de Comillas; the Diocese of Astorga, the entity that manages the Episcopal Palace of Gaudí in Astorga; FUNDOS, the entity that owns the Casa Botines Gaudí Museum in León, and Grupo Catalana Occidente Activos Inmobiliarios, managers of the Bellesguard Tower in Barcelona.
The chair will study the buildings for a second extension of World Heritage, UNESCO’s recognition of Gaudí’s creations promoted in 1984, which received a first extension in 2005. This initiative seeks to have the entire built work of the Catalan architect, whose 100th anniversary of his death will be commemorated in 2026, declared a World Heritage Site.
