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What Was Gaudí Like? His Character, His Faith and His Way of Working, According to José Manuel Almuzara

“I would say that Gaudí is not an ‘almost spiritual’ figure, but a fully human and spiritual one at the same time. He lived the human and the divine in unity.”
— José Manuel Almuzara, in ESSENCEmag, 6 June 2026

José Manuel Almuzara is an architect, has chaired the association for the beatification of Antoni Gaudí since 1992 and is the author of “Gaudí, the Architect of the Soul”. For more than thirty years he has been telling people who Gaudí was: what his childhood was like, what kind of character he had, how he worked and how he lived his faith. This page brings together what he has said in interviews and talks and what he has written, in his own words and with the source of each quote.

What was he like as a person?

On RPA, the public radio station of Asturias, Almuzara began with his name:

“Antonio means, in the Roman language, the one who confronts adversity. Gaudí is to enjoy, and Cornet: cor, heart; net, clean.”

In his article “Encounters with Gaudí in Times of ‘Pandemics’” (“Encuentros con Gaudí en tiempos de ‘pandemias’”) he goes over the adversities of Gaudí’s life:

“Gaudí’s life unfolded amid illnesses, the premature death of his loved ones (by the age of 27 he had already lost his mother and his four siblings), pandemics, the First World War, envy, slander, misunderstanding and mockery.”

In the interview he gave in January 2026 to El Faro de Melilla, a newspaper in the Spanish city of Melilla, he described him like this:

“I believe Gaudí is consistent with what he thinks, and he lives with those thoughts in mind: personal, social, cultural, religious, and putting into practice the gifts he has received, feeling himself to be an instrument, a collaborator in divine creation.”

And to the Spanish newspaper La Tribuna, in June 2026:

“A man in love with his work and with God, who made no split between human consciousness and the divine.”

In 2003, the Veritas news agency asked him what had impressed him most about Gaudí’s personality. His answer began like this:

“His dedication to work and his service to others and to God.”
— Interview with the Veritas news agency, Barcelona, 25 May 2003

On Ràdio 4, the Catalan-language station of Spain’s national radio RNE, he came back to that idea in June 2026:

“I think that Gaudí, after everything I have heard, would be a potential for the culture of service. If you serve, the one who is happy is the other person, because you do it thinking of the other.”

Did he ever fall in love?

Yes, and more than once, as he told RPA:

“I sometimes say, half joking, half seriously, that he fell in love several times, and the girls all said no to him. It’s not as if he seems to have been very ugly, either: fair-haired, with blue eyes, I don’t know, well, present company excepted.”

In the special broadcast of 10 June 2026 on La 1, the main channel of Spain’s public television TVE, he was asked for details, and he told the story of the first of those loves:

“He does the Mataró [Cooperative] among his first projects, 1878, he has just finished his degree. And then there he meets Pepita Moreu, the famous one, eh, three sisters, and then, eh, they used to invite him to lunch and it took him a long time to say: ‘T’estimo, I love you.’ Because she was already engaged [...]. And well, but that, that love he always kept there, but very much the gentleman, he didn’t fight for her, because she was engaged to someone else, right?”

And he went on:

“Afterwards he fell in love with another one, they say that, that she became a nun. So, of course, eh, the third one too.”

In the same programme he was also asked for the anecdote about the noodles in his beard:

“Imagine Gaudí with his beard, and there you have his possible love, and you are a refined, elegant woman, eh? Well, of course, you see some noodles there, eh, it can put you off, right? Well, it’s an anecdote people tell.”

What were his childhood and youth like?

On RPA he described his early years like this:

“And from when he was very small, well, he can’t go to school because he has very severe physical pains, and his mother takes him on a little donkey to a country house they had near Reus, in Riudoms, and there, well, he contemplates nature, the nature he will always say will be his teacher. He can’t play with the other children, he can’t jump, run and so on, and well, that helped him to have, as he himself said years later, a spirit of observation.”

On TVE he recalled his student years:

“And when he was a student, he had to work to pay for his studies, and he worked for Francesc de Paula del Villar. [...] With the first one, as a student, he went to, to Montserrat and drew the plans, but the other man signed them because he wasn’t a stu-- he was no more than a student.”

What was his character like?

On RPA he was asked about the image of Gaudí as a solitary man. He replied:

“Perhaps he would seek solitude at the right moments, just as it is good for us too, sometimes, to be in solitude, to contemplate the sea or the chirping of the birds, as Gaudí used to say. Well, so sometimes it is good to be alone, and but that doesn’t mean that one is, well, an unfriendly person, no. Gaudí really did take care, for example, of his workers. [...] And that is a man, well, who is not a solitary man who cares nothing about others, but the opposite. He wanted the work to be better, and for that you have to know the beings of creation well, the animals too, the plants, but above all created beings as regards people.”

In the same conversation he spoke about Gaudí’s bad temper:

“He used to say that he fought against everything to be better, but in one thing, in one thing he himself said no, that it didn’t seem he was winning, and that was his bad temper at times, right? I think, too, sometimes, this is my opinion, when you demand a lot of yourself and you demand, sometimes it can seem that you have a bad temper and that you don’t love that person.”

To explain how demanding he was, he turned to two scenes sculpted in the Rosary Portal of the Sagrada Família:

“Because Gaudí loves people and knows that in our lives there are temptations. [...] There Gaudí doesn’t decide for you or for me. What does Gaudí do? Those sculptures are looking at a woman who carries a child in her arms. Well, what do you know, it’s Mary, and the child is Jesus. Well, that is Gaudí. [...] And this, Gaudí, well, that bad temper sometimes, he thought, because he made people repeat things several times, why? Because he wanted perfection, he wanted it to be as good as possible.”

How did he work?

On COPE, a Spanish radio network, he was asked which qualities of Gaudí’s architecture he most admires, from one professional to another. He replied:

“Gaudí used to say that work is the fruit of collaboration and has to be based on love. [...] He, as an architect, just like someone conducting an orchestra, has to know how to direct. So he would say: Pedro, do this. Andrés, do this. Raimundo, don’t eat so much, you’re going to burst and fall off the scaffolding. That was Gaudí. [...] Because Gaudí also said, and this has also helped me a great deal as an architect, that to do things well you first have to love them, and then comes the technique.”

In “Encounters with Gaudí in Times of ‘Pandemics’” he quotes at length that saying of Gaudí’s about work:

“Gaudí took care of his workers, both in their professional side and in their personal lives: ‘Work,’ he remarked, ‘is the fruit of collaboration, and this can only be based on love. The architect must know how to make good use of what the workmen know how to do and what they are able to do. The pre-eminent quality of each one must be put to use. That is: to integrate, to add up all the efforts and to lend them a hand when they get stuck; that way they work contentedly and with the security that full trust in the organiser gives. Moreover, it must be remembered that no one is useless, everyone is of use (though not all with the same capacity); the question is to find what each one is good for.’”

In the same article he describes how his colleagues saw him:

“His methods of organisation aroused curiosity, and his colleagues in the city began to criticise him and to see him as ‘eager to set himself apart’. Some of these colleagues sent their site foremen to the Sagrada Família to work incognito for Gaudí, and in the end they decided to stay with him; others left their construction firms and asked Gaudí for work in order to learn, eager to perfect themselves professionally.”

And he explains how far his work extended in each commission:

“From the very beginning Gaudí had a global concept of architecture or, more precisely, of artistic creation, anticipating Gropius and his Bauhaus colleagues by several decades. For him the task, the architect’s responsibility towards his client, began with the design and the site management, and ended at the moment the building was fully decorated. This explains the multitude of furnishings—chairs, bookcases, candelabra, etc.—that Gaudí designed and whose construction he directed personally, when he did not make them with his own hands.”

To El Faro de Melilla he spoke about how much he demanded of himself:

“Gaudí was a man in love with his work, with growing personal demands on himself that he passes on to his collaborators; he seeks perfection, beauty, the originality of returning to the origin, in a word, the glory of God.”

On RPA he gave the example of the materials in León:

“When he goes to León, to the Casa Botines, well, he uses the materials of the area itself, because by using the materials, the means available, as he used to say, well, that’s it, the building has character, it has dignity.”

On COPE, standing before the façade of the Casa Milà, he explained how Gaudí made use of what others would have thrown away:

“And it is made with waste material, that is, Gaudí was a pioneer of recycling, of sustainability. Just as in the Casa Batlló and in other places, if there are, for example, some bottles that break, don’t throw it away. Gaudí uses it [...] because Gaudí knew how to make beauty out of what was useless, so to speak.”

To Metrópoli Abierta, a digital news outlet of the El Español group, he said in April 2026:

“Very often people judge only the outward appearance without asking themselves what each element means. Gaudí placed nothing arbitrarily.”

And on RPA he applied it to a specific building:

“But what is the important thing for me? The essential. I mean, what does it mean? Why, and what for? As I say in the book, right? Why, and what for, is that made that way? [...] Why, and what for, are there 5 horizontal lines of flowers, of sunflowers, on El Capricho in Comillas? Why are there 5? Ah, it’s because it’s the music!”

What did he learn from nature?

On RPA, Almuzara already placed Gaudí’s contact with nature in his childhood in Riudoms, “the nature he will always say will be his teacher”. In 2003, the Veritas news agency asked him why he would say that Gaudí is an architect of genius:

“He has been able to discover, through careful, deep and intelligent observation of nature, the models, the forms, the laws that the Creator has bequeathed to us, in order, by collaborating with Him, to build singular buildings. Moreover, making use of the historical styles, Gaudí corrects their flaws; he is evolutionary and innovative.”
— Interview with the Veritas news agency, Barcelona, 25 May 2003

In the same interview he was asked to interpret Gaudí’s saying “originality consists in returning to the origin”:

“I can give Gaudí’s own answer, which his disciple Isidre Puig Boada recorded: ‘Creation continues unceasingly through the mediation of men; man does not create: he discovers, and starts from that discovery. Those who seek the laws of nature in order to form new works collaborate with the creator; copyists do not collaborate. That is why originality consists in returning to the origin.’”
— Interview with the Veritas news agency, Barcelona, 25 May 2003

And when he was asked why Gaudí can be an example for Christians, he began with nature again:

“Gaudí, through his love of nature, through the study of its forms, of order and of beauty, leads us to God the Creator. Through his life of intense work, of sacrifice, of humility; through his life of piety, and his love for the Eucharist, for the Passion of Jesus Christ and for the Virgin, he leads us to God the Redeemer and Sanctifier.”
— Interview with the Veritas news agency, Barcelona, 25 May 2003

On COPE, in June 2026:

“Gaudí makes an architecture that is beauty, and in today’s architecture, too, many architects around the world take into account his mastery, based on nature, and nature is for everyone, whether you are a believer or a non-believer, from one country or another.”

How did he live his faith?

On RPA, Almuzara recalled some words recorded by Ràfols, Gaudí’s first biographer:

“But behind it Gaudí used to say, and that is how Ràfols reflected it, Gaudí, seen from outside the faith, will always be incomprehensible. We can study one aspect, but not his synthesis, and that is what Ràfols told us, who was Gaudí’s first biographer.”

In El Faro de Melilla he described his life of piety:

“Gaudí practised the virtues and the life of piety: ‘Life is a battle; to fight, one needs strength, and strength is virtue, which is only sustained and increased through spiritual cultivation, that is, through religious practices.’ Therefore, knowing this reality, he frequents the sacraments, has spiritual direction, prays the rosary, reads the Gospel, visits the sick, gives alms and submits himself to severe penances.”

In 2003, the Veritas news agency asked him whether the Gospel was the main source of Gaudí’s religious life:

“Yes, but not only the Gospel, also the books of the liturgy, the Roman Missal, etc. Gaudí used to say that ‘man without religion was a spiritually diminished man, a mutilated man’.”
— Interview with the Veritas news agency, Barcelona, 25 May 2003

And he went on with a detail of his daily routine:

“Moreover, according to Gaudí, ‘Life is love and love is sacrifice. Sacrifice is the only truly fruitful thing.’ To put this ideal into practice, Gaudí practised the virtues, attended Mass, frequented the sacraments and prayed every day in the crypt of the Sagrada Família, before starting work.”
— Interview with the Veritas news agency, Barcelona, 25 May 2003

On the Virgin Mary, in the TVE special:

“Gaudí was, is, eh... was a man in love with Our Lady of Montserrat. He even belonged to the Spiritual League of Montserrat.”

In front of the Casa Milà, on COPE, he explained what that building is missing:

“This one I call Gaudí’s last civil work, and it is missing precisely the last stone, which is the one that gives meaning, Gaudí used to say. An architect met Gaudí and said to him, I wouldn’t sleep easy if, having done this incredibly complex work of foundations, of structure. And Gaudí answered him, well, I wouldn’t sleep easy either if I know in advance what gives, that I cannot put in what gives meaning, and that is the Virgin.”

On the cross, on RPA:

“But he always, I think that is also why he puts the cross on many of his buildings, because he believes that to follow Christ, well, that’s it, you have to follow, as he told us, with the cross, right? That cross which is, well, smiling even when you don’t feel like it, visiting a sick person, carrying on in spite of everything, as they say, and so on.”

In “Encounters with Gaudí in Times of ‘Pandemics’” he records how Gaudí faced whatever happened to him:

“Gaudí used to say: ‘Everything I have done depends on circumstances; if they turn out well, to adapt myself, and, if badly, to fight; they are always useful; they are the manifestations of Providence.’”

And on COPE he explained what it means that the Church has declared him Venerable:

“Pope Francis, on 14 April 2025, declared Gaudí Venerable. That means that the Church, with the Pope at its head, recognises the virtues lived to a heroic degree by Gaudí.”

What did he do with money?

In “Encounters with Gaudí in Times of ‘Pandemics’” he writes:

“Faced with the lack of money for the construction of the Sagrada Família (a work on which he laboured for more than forty years, the last twelve exclusively), he would go out to obtain donations, alms for the construction of the Expiatory Temple and to pay his workmen.”

On TVE he told how a lawsuit he won ended:

“They ended up in court and Mr Gaudí, the, the, the judge ruled in his favour for a hundred and sixty thousand pesetas, but he gave it to the poor, because he said he wasn’t in it for the ‘pela’, the money, which for a Catalan is sort of very... But I say it affectionately, eh? Eh, but he was in it for justice.”

To ESSENCEmag magazine he recalled one of Gaudí’s sayings:

“He used to say that ‘worthwhile things are not done with an eye to reward’.”

In the 2003 Veritas interview he linked it to the Sagrada Família:

“I would point to one detail: on the columns of the large windows in the side walls of the Sagrada Família, Gaudí placed the inscriptions ‘gold, frankincense and myrrh’, relating them to almsgiving, prayer and sacrifice. It would be a way of summing up Gaudí’s message very briefly: with prayer, sacrifice and almsgiving we raise the material temple, the Sagrada Família, and the personal temple.”
— Interview with the Veritas news agency, Barcelona, 25 May 2003

And to El Faro de Melilla he quoted Gaudí’s saying about sacrifice:

“Gaudí practised and defended sacrifice: ‘Life is love and love is sacrifice. Sacrifice is the only truly fruitful thing. The reason for the spiritual and material progress of religious orders, of households, is that all their members sacrifice themselves for the good of the whole.’”

What were his last days like?

On COPE he explained why Gaudí left the Casa Milà:

“In the end Gaudí, tired of petty squabbles, goes to the house, from the Casa Milà, he goes to the Sagrada Família, and there he ends his 12 years finishing what is going to be his magnum opus.”

In 2003, to the Veritas news agency, he explained what the Sagrada Família meant to Gaudí:

“From the end of 1883 until the day of his death in June 1926, Gaudí worked on the building of the Temple of the Sagrada Família, so these are many years spent on the construction of that project. In the Sagrada Família Gaudí found the best and most complete way of serving God and others. He used to say: ‘The Church never stops building, and that is why her head is the Pontiff, which means one who makes bridges. Temples are bridges for reaching Glory.’”
— Interview with the Veritas news agency, Barcelona, 25 May 2003

In the TVE special, live on air:

“And we have just seen a shot of a place where Gaudí lived the last months of his life, the parish rooms through which the Pope will enter the crypt. And, eh, well, it is very moving because there Gaudí, from October 1925 until the day of the accident, well, lived there.”

On COPE he recalled the day of the accident:

“7 June 1926 was a Monday. Gaudí was leaving work saying: Vicente, come early tomorrow, we’ll do some very beautiful things, to make a simple lamp. That day, the accident caused his death 3 days later.”

And on TVE he read in those dates Gaudí’s three great loves:

“On 7 June 1926, the day of the accident, it was a Monday. That accident leads Gaudí to suffer pain and death three days later. So, for me, it leads to the cross, something Gaudí always placed in his works, his civil works too. The Thursday was 10 June, this very day in 1926. Thursday we Catholics dedicate to the Eucharist. Gaudí’s great love for the Eucharist, as we can see here, where there is a pelican, among other things. [...] And 12 June was a Saturday. Saturday leads us to Mary. So, Gaudí’s three great loves, this is how I sum it up: the cross, the Eucharist and Mary.”

Where these words come from

In “Encounters with Gaudí in Times of ‘Pandemics’”, Almuzara tells how his relationship with Gaudí began:

“And why is Gaudí in my life? It all began in the mid-1970s. On the occasion of an assignment at the Barcelona Technical School of Architecture, set by my professor Juan Bassegoda Nonell, I met the architect Lluís Bonet Garí, a disciple of Gaudí and in charge of the design and direction of the works of the Expiatory Temple of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, together with the architect Isidre Puig Boada, whom I met shortly afterwards.”

On COPE, in June 2026, he summed up what came next:

“I gradually fell in love, first with the architect, and I never stopped being filled with enthusiasm before not only the architect but the man and the Christian behind him. And in fact I am fortunate to have been there so many years and to discover that Gaudí attracts, makes an impact and converts.”

And in July 2026, in an online conversation with the il Baglio circle in Cefalù, Sicily:

“I realised that Gaudí, well, was something more than an architect; he was a man who, through his work, his architecture, his method of working, his life, could help us towards the encounter with God, that they were living stones.”

The quotes on this page come from these interviews, talks and writings by José Manuel Almuzara: