The tantalizing possibility emerged ten days ago when historian and researcher Beli Artigas published a fragment of a 1922 Barcelona wedding film on her blog, Criticart. In the footage, a man with a white beard and a boater hat appears briefly. Artigas posed the question that has since rippled through the city’s cultural circles: is this Antoni Gaudí? If confirmed, the discovery would be a monumental event, arriving as Barcelona commemorates the centenary of the architect’s death.


Your browser does not support the video tag.

“To be able to confirm it, I need the collaboration of anyone who is willing, or able, to share part of their knowledge to decipher it,” Artigas wrote, exercising scholarly caution. While she remained prudent, the footage quickly spread online, where others were less reserved. The popular architecture history account on X, Efemérides de Arquitectura, celebrated the find in a detailed thread, confidently asserting the man is Gaudí.

The film captures the wedding of a member of the Costa-Artigas family (the shared surname with the researcher is coincidental). According to Artigas, the family’s descendants, now in their 70s, have always maintained that Gaudí was a guest at their grandparents’ wedding. The connection is well-established; the architect was friends with the family and designed the renowned Jardins Artigas for them in La Pobla de Lillet. “Everything fits,” Artigas told El País. “They were clients of Gaudí and had become friends, but we are missing images from an album, a guest list, or someone alive who could explain that their grandparents were also there.”

Cautious Optimism from Experts

Official institutions, however, are withholding judgment. The board of the Sagrada Familia, Gaudí’s unfinished masterpiece, stated, “The Sagrada Familia believes this determination should be made by expert professionals.” Similarly, Galdric Santana, director of the Gaudí Chair at UPC, told the EFE news agency that “an exhaustive study would have to be done to confirm the hypothesis.”

This academic reticence stems from a history of unsubstantiated claims and erroneous identifications related to the architect. Mireia Freixa, an emeritus professor of Art History at the University of Barcelona and an expert in Catalan Modernism, noted the importance of Artigas’s cautious approach. “There has been an inflation of news based on unjustified anecdotes, and everyone is walking on eggshells,” Freixa explained to El País, referencing past controversies over a lack of rigor, such as at the 2014 World Gaudí Congress. “Too often, the anecdote has been valued over the historical significance of the person.”

Despite the need for caution, Freixa called the emergence of the images “fantastic and important.” She added, “We have moving images that we did not have before, and they provide a more everyday view of Gaudí that complements what is fundamental: the value of his architectural production.”

A More Human Gaudí?

Journalist Tate Cabré, who has worked extensively on Gaudí projects, is personally convinced the man in the film is the architect. She offers three reasons. First, the Costa-Artigas family’s consistent oral history. Second, the physical resemblance. Having studied the architect’s death mask in the Sagrada Familia crypt, she says, “It’s him: small head, pointed chin, small ears.” Third is the man’s demeanor. “He was a discreet, humble, reserved man,” she noted, contrasting him with a burly, forward-looking man in a debunked 2017 film from Montserrat that was falsely identified as Gaudí.

For Artigas, confirming the footage would do more than just provide a historical artifact; it could reshape the popular image of the man himself. “It could give history a different Gaudí from the reading that he was a mystical, obfuscated, solitary, and unfriendly person dedicated solely to the Sagrada Familia,” she said.

“If it were Gaudí, it would show us that he was a normal person, who on the day he attends a wedding, gets dressed up, cuts his hair, and goes to the barber.”

Artigas points out that in 1922, Gaudí was still living in his house in Park Güell, a period before he moved into his workshop at the Sagrada Familia in the final months of his life. The film, she argues, challenges the “unkempt, religious” caricature of the architect, presenting him as an integrated member of society.

But as Cabré acknowledges, a definitive, 100% certification may be impossible. “There is no single authority on Gaudí,” she stated. “All direct witnesses are dead.” For now, the three-second clip remains a compelling piece of a puzzle, adding a fresh layer of intrigue to the legacy of Barcelona’s most famous architect in his centenary year.

Primary source: El País Barcelona.