I only recently learned, on a trip to Barcelona, that a large part of the money for Antoni Gaudí’s glorious buildings came from slavery in Cuba, in which Catalan traders were engaged as late as the 1880s.
His greatest patron, Eusebi Güell, owed much of his wealth to slave-based fortunes accumulated by his father-in-law and his father – a fact that, while not secret, is little explored in the official histories. Does this mean that the great architect’s work is fatally tainted, that the tourists who queue up to visit the Gaudí-designed palace, park and unfinished church that bear Güell’s name should feel bad about themselves for doing so? It does not. But it’s never wrong to know the truth, however difficult.
