The Central Hall

  • The central hall.
  • The central hall.
  • The central hall.
  • The dome.
  • The dome.
  • Güell Palace organ console.
  • Marble bench designed by Gaudí.
  • Güell Palace chapel.

 

This hall is crowned by a parabolic dome, which lights the whole space through a series of small openings and a large central oculus.

From an original and intelligent solution, the central hall becomes the backbone around which the space of the building is configured, and at the same time is an area of vertical relationships—musical and visual—with the floors above. Thus when concerts were held here, visitors sat on the hall level with the organ keyboard; the orchestra was on the floor above; above that, the singers, and above them the organ pipes. This meant the music emerged from all around, a totally Wagnerian concept.

 Palau Güell also hosted religious services. The closet-chapel, in the central hall, is a small room closed off by two large doors that, when opened, revealed the altar.

The hall also contains four oil paintings by Aleix Clapés.