The tragic death of Gaudí

From 1914, Gaudí worked full-time on the Sagrada Familia. Every waking hour, he spent redrawing, rethinking and completing his design. He was so focused that he no longer took care of himself and walked around with an unkempt beard and dirty, old clothes. On 7 June 1926, Gaudí was on his way to the Sagrada Familia when he was hit by a tram on the busy Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes. The tram simply drove on and the nearby taxi drivers refused to bring him to the hospital as he looked like a poor and homeless man. Eventually, a police officer escorted him to the Hospital de la Santa Creu, the medieval hospital for the poor, which would close one month later. It took two days before the hospital staff realised that it was Antoni Gaudí laying in one of their beds, but even then, he refused to be transferred to a decent hospital. “My place is here, amongst the poor,” he said. Three days after the accident, he passed away, after which he was buried in the crypt of his own masterpiece: the Sagrada Familia.