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Antoni Plàcid Guillem Gaudí i Cornet
 1852-1926

Antoni Gaudí , born in June 25 1852, was a religious Catalan architect. His parents,  Francesc Gaudí Serra (1813-1906), a coppersmith, and Antonia Cornet Bertran (?-1876), a daughter of a family of coppersmiths, lived in Reus, Tarragona. Since he was small, he had rheumatic promblem, preventing him from playing with other children. Walking caused him pain, so he missed many classes and rode a donkey to get places. This disease followed him throughout his entire life. It is believed that Antoni first began his religiousness when he was sent to  Col.legi de les Escoles Píes, a Pious school, where they recited the Oficio del Parvo de la Virgen every Saturday. Later on in life, he said that in that school he realized the "value of the divine history of the salvation of man through Christ incarnate, given to the world by the Virgin Mary." He later tried to put these ideas into his greatest work, the Sagrada Familia. In 1868, Antoni moved to Barcelona where he entered the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura (Upper Technical School of Architecture).  Antoni, although not an excellent student, was good enough to obtain a solid education of elementary architectural knowledge. On February 11, 1878, the director of the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura sent the transcripts of four students, Antoni being one of them, to the rector of the University for them to be granted the title of architect. Antoni sought out inspiration for his works in medieval books, in the gothic art that was then going through a renaissance, and in the organic shapes of nature. But Antoni developed a style that was entirely his own.

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