Crypt at the Colònia Güell and La Pedra de les Orenetes

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Crypt at the Colònia Güell

   Few people ride out of Barcelona expecting to find Gaudí in a mill village, but that is exactly what waits at Santa Coloma de Cervelló, a short hop up the Llobregat from Sant Boi. The Colònia Güell was a textile colony founded by the industrialist Eusebi Güell, who moved his cotton works out of the city in the 1890s and built housing, a school, shops and a theatre for the workers around the factory. He asked his friend Antoni Gaudí for a church. Gaudí spent about ten years on the design and its foundations, and when money and the Güell family's enthusiasm ran out around 1914, only the lower level had been finished. That crypt is what you come to see.

   Read the complete Crypt at the Colònia Güell write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Crypt at the Colònia Güell is where the day begins. Next is Palacio Güell.

2. 2. Palacio Güell

   Antoni Gaudí was in his thirties when Eusebi Güell asked him to build a town house just off the Ramblas, and he gave his patron a palace that looks plain on the street and wild inside. The Palau Güell, built between 1886 and 1890 for the industrialist who became Gaudí's greatest supporter, stands in the Raval, a narrow street in what was then a respectable neighbourhood and is now one of the most multicultural districts of Barcelona. The front has two huge parabolic arches of wrought iron, with a pattern of whiplash lines in the gates, and the interior has a central hall that rises through the building to a dome pierced with small holes, so that on a sunny day the ceiling is spotted with starry light.

   Read the complete Palacio Güell write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Palacio Güell comes up about 18 km into the recorded legs. Next is La Pedra de les Orenetes.

3. 3. La Pedra de les Orenetes

   La Pedra de les Orenetes, the Swallows' Stone, is a granite boulder in the hills above La Roca del Vallès, and its surface is covered with small carved hollows and other marks left by people in prehistory. Nobody knows exactly what they meant; such engraved rocks are found across Catalonia, and theories range from ritual offerings to maps of the stars. The rock sits among cork oaks and pines in the Serralada Litoral, the coastal range that separates the Vallès plain from the sea, and the walk to reach it is short and pleasant, through scented forest with views over the plain.

   Read the complete La Pedra de les Orenetes write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 54 km into the recorded legs you reach La Pedra de les Orenetes. Next is back through Palacio Güell.

4. 4. back through Palacio Güell

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Palacio Güell write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Palacio Güell, late in the day. Next is Crypt at the Colònia Güell.

5. 5. Crypt at the Colònia Güell

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Crypt at the Colònia Güell write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Crypt at the Colònia Güell. That is the ride.