Barcelona audio guide: the stories of its sights

The Sagrada Família in Barcelona has a tower that is deliberately not as tall as it could be.

Its architect, Gaudí, held back on purpose, so that his creation would not rise higher than God's. The Sagrada Família is a Catholic church in the Eixample district of Barcelona. Building began on 19 March 1882, under the architect Francisco de Paula del Villar. Gaudí's story with it came later. The central tower is the one for Jesus Christ. It stands 172.5 metres high, and that makes this the tallest church in the world.

It beats the old record-holder, Ulm Minster, by 11 metres. Yet the tower stays lower than Montjuïc, the hill in Barcelona. Gaudí believed that his work should not surpass God's, and the hill was the work of God. So he measured his tower against the hill, and let the hill win. In 2010, on 7 November, Pope Benedict the Sixteenth consecrated the church and proclaimed it a basilica.

Today you can visit the nave, the crypt and a museum. You can also go up into the towers, the Passion and Nativity steeples. The way down is a very narrow spiral staircase of over 300 steps, an adventure of its own.

Imagine planning a luxury estate of around 60 villas, and selling just two plots.

That is what happened at Park Güell in Barcelona. Today it is a public park with gardens and buildings, designed by Antoni Gaudí. It began as a housing development. The idea was to scatter around 60 homes through an immense garden, high above the city, with views over Barcelona. But buyers stayed away. The area was too far from the centre of town. And at the time, what people wanted were the grand modern buildings along the Paseo de Gràcia, in the new part of the city.

So only two plots were ever sold. The show house, built to tempt buyers, ended up with an owner after all. Gaudí bought it himself, and he lived there. The park was built between 1900 and 1914, and opened to the public in 1926. In 1984 it became part of the UNESCO World Heritage site "Works of Antoni Gaudí". Today, the Casa-Museo Gaudí holds furniture and personal belongings, including Gaudí's bedroom.

And from the Calvary hill, you get a magnificent view over Barcelona.

Casa Batlló in Barcelona has a roof that looks like the back of a dragon, covered in scales of red, green and blue ceramic.

The house stands on the Passeig de Gràcia. It was not built from scratch. Antoni Gaudí rebuilt an existing house between 1904 and 1906, and the roof became its crowning touch. Its arched shape is covered in glazed ceramic, laid like scales. One reading of the façade sees Saint George fighting the dragon. The columns and balconies stand for the victims.

The cross with four arms is the sword stuck in the beast's spine. And the red ceramic is its blood. Some people read the attic in the same way. With its ribs, they see it as the inside of the dragon's body. Today the house is a World Heritage Site, listed by UNESCO since 2005. In 1993 the Bernat family, owners of Chupa Chups, bought it, restored it and opened it to visitors.

On the roof terrace, the chimneys are topped with glass balls filled with coloured sand.