Barcelona in scene: the series 'City of Shadows' dialogues with Gaudí's architecture

The Netflix series City of Shadows transforms Barcelona into more than just a backdrop. The city is an active element of the narrative and helps to convey psychological tensions, moral conflicts, and the constant duality between light and darkness that runs through the plot. At various moments, the series directly echoes the architectural language that made Antoni Gaudí one of the greatest names in the history of architecture.

Gaudí's influence is perceptible in the way spaces are framed and experienced by the characters. Stunning façades, almost dreamlike interiors, and the symbolic presence of the city refer to an architecture that breaks with strict rationalism and bets on emotion, spirituality, and nature as structuring forces. Just like in the works of the Catalan architect, City of Shadows builds a projects where nothing is totally linear — everything seems to be in transformation.

Barcelona em cena: série 'Cidade de Sombras' dialoga com arquitetura de Gaudí (Netflix/CASACOR)

Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926) was one of the main exponents of Catalan modernism and redefined architecture by integrating art, engineering, and religious symbolism into projects with strong visual identity. Works such as Casa Batlló, Park Güell, and Casa Milà challenged the aesthetic and technical standards of their time, betting on organic forms inspired by nature and innovative structural solutions. His most ambitious project, the Basilica of the Sagrada Família, has crossed generations and, after more than a century of work, has completion scheduled for 2026 — the year that marks the centenary of the architect's death.

Barcelona em cena: série 'Cidade de Sombras' dialoga com arquitetura de Gaudí (Netflix/CASACOR)

By bringing fiction and the real city together, City of Shadows reinforces how architecture can be narrative: not just a setting, but a language. The series appropriates the imagery crafted by Gaudí to amplify its own themes — spirituality, internal conflict, beauty, and strangeness. In the series, Barcelona reaffirms its role as a symbolic space, where past, present, and future coexist, just like in the works of the architect who immortalized it.