Gaudí's forgotten project in Alella

AlellaNestled among vineyards and grand farmhouses in the heart of the Rials Valley lies Alella. This town, renowned for the wines of the country's smallest designation of origin, is also associated with the illustrious name of Antoni Gaudí. The fact that a town square bears his name is a clue, but less well-known is that the architect from Reus designed a chapel and altarpiece in Alella that were never built. The story of this project remained hidden for years, and its rediscovery was a genuine surprise.

With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the parish priest of Alella and the mayor at the time, Antoni Pujadas i Nirell, decided to hide the books and documents from the parish archives in sacks under a staircase in the town hall to save them from the arson that was ravaging churches. The story could have been lost forever, but in 1959, dampness in the municipal building led to the demolition of the wall. The sacks were recovered, and among the papers, Salvador Artés, a local historian and future mayor of the town, discovered, with the help of Enric Casanelles, a folded drawing inside an envelope. It was the plan for a chapel project, signed by Antoni Gaudí in 1883.

Today, to the sound of the bell tower of the Sant Feliu de Alella parish church, one arrives at the Bishop's Room in the rectory. Inside, behind a table piled high with antique books, sits Joan Prats, a lawyer and the parish archivist, eager to show firsthand Gaudí's legacy in the town. Prats goes directly to the fireproof archive cabinet, takes out a large folder, carefully opens it, and a large drawing emerges. It is the plan for the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in the Sant Feliu de Alella parish church. The project is outlined in two-color India ink, at a 1:25 scale, with the images depicted in reverse, as if viewed through a mirror. "The reproduction systems of the time required the original to be reversed in order to make copies," Prats explains.

"Gaudí was not just another summer visitor"

The story of how the architect of the Sagrada Família designed a chapel for a small town in the Maresme region dates back to the 1880s, when Gaudí spent summers in Alella at the invitation of his client, Manuel Vicens Montaner, and his wife, Dolors Giralt, a native of the town. According to Prats, "Gaudí was no ordinary summer visitor." "He had a direct relationship with the parish priest and ended up receiving the commission to design the new Blessed Sacrament Chapel for the parish of Sant Feliu," he says. The chosen site was the old bridge street, a street that, through a land swap, passed into the parish's hands. The drawing was made in July 1883, but approval from the Archdiocese of Barcelona didn't arrive until three years later, in March 1886. Although the project was intended to be financed through private donations, its high cost, with a planned silver altarpiece, meant the proposal never came to fruition. The chapel was finally built around 1890 according to the design of the Barcelona architect General Guitart y Lostaló.

The plan preserved in the parish archives of Alella shows a chapel attached to the church with a gabled roof and ribbed pointed arches, following the Catalan Gothic style. But what is truly surprising is the detailed altarpiece that Gaudí had designed. It is a lesson in theology and symbolism, full of biblical references. It features seven windows with trumpeting angels, the four living creatures of the tetramorph—lion, bull, eagle, and man—symbolizing the Evangelists, and a central panel with Christ on Golgotha between the Virgin Mary and Saint John, within an elliptical halo of light and cherubs. At the bottom is the tabernacle of the Mystic Lamb. "It is an early work, but we can already see his intense reading of the Bible and his ability to transform it into symbolic architecture," Prats points out. All these references to the Book of Revelation, permeated by the obsessive repetition of the word "Sanctus", which years later Gaudí would incorporate into the towers of the Sagrada Familia, show his deep devotion.

Although the chapel was never built, Gaudí's connection to Alella left other traces. Prats walks through the attic and the corners of the parish church while explaining that the parish priest had also asked him to design a new staircase with triangular steps, a Gothic system that he also applied in other works such as those of the Güell Colony. Upstairs, where Gaudí stayed, there were pieces of furniture designed by him, such as a fireplace and a corner wardrobe. This latter piece of furniture has been recovered, restored, and can now be seen at Casa Vicens in Barcelona.

Given all this heritage and Gaudí's connection to Alella, in 1965 the town inaugurated a monolith and a square dedicated to Gaudí, and in 2002 it strengthened the bond with events for the 150th anniversary of his birth, including the inauguration of Gaudí Park. June 10th of this year marks the centenary of the artist's death, and the Generalitat of Catalonia has declared 2026 the Year of Gaudí. Today, the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in the parish church of Sant Feliu is the work of Guitart and Lostaló, with a simple altarpiece that survived a fire in 2015. But Gaudí's presence still resonates, especially as Joan Prats explains, who incorporates his work into the monstrance. After a long stroll through the attic and hidden corners of the parish church, the bells once again mark the passage of time, and the setting sun suggests it's time to go home. Joan Prats observes: "Alella doesn't have a monumental Gaudí work like Barcelona, ​​but it has a history that connects it to the architect." A history that remained hidden in sacks of clothing, under a staircase, and that today serves as a reminder of how the genius's path also led through the vineyards and farmhouses of the Maresme region.