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A man with a vision

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'Man does not create ... he discovers' - Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926)

Death on the tram track

A white-haired, shabbily dressed old man with piercing blue eyes is crossing a road in the Spanish city of Barcelona. He looks worried. Behind him the first section of the new Sagrada Familia cathedral rises into the clear sky.

He has walked out of his workplace in a bad mood because he's just had an argument with one of his colleagues. It is June 10, 1926. Head down, staring at the cobbles, he takes a step forward, and is knocked down by a tram. Seriously injured, he is taken to a hospital where he dies without anyone recognising that he is one of the best-loved and most famous men in Spain.

Nature, imagination and craftsmanship

Young Antoni Gaudi loved to go for long hikes in the countryside around the village in southern Spain where he was born.

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