We are in Astorga today at the Hotel Gaudi, across the street from the Bishop’s Palace, one of three Gaudi buildings outside of Barcelona. It appears the bishop got booted because walking in I saw a sign for the Gaudi Palace.
We toured it the last time we were here and might go again tomorrow.
I wanted to say a few more things about Gaudi after seeing the museum in Leon. I had thought of Gaudi mainly as an artist who built building modeled on organic forms, but he was a gifted architect as well. Leon is colder than Barcelona and has problematic soil and lots of rain. He designed a new kind of foundation method for the Leon building, different from what was done before in Leon. The local architects didn’t think it would work and spread tales about how dangerous the building would be. But it did work and was also used in a later Gaudi building in Barcelona. He designed a ventilation system for the building to make it comfortable in summer and winter. He slanted the roof so the snow would fall off and other parts of the building so the snow would stay and give the building a frosted winter palace look. He designed drainage systems so the rain would not run down the side of the building including failsafes if they got blocked. He also designed furniture for the building, Quite the all-around guy.