The deadly accident of Gaudí

Caterina Ferrer was born on October 10th, 1922. She was the eldest daughter of Dr Ferrer Solervicens, a professor at the Faculty of Medicine. He was one of the doctors who had inaugurated the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona.

The family lived at the address Gran Via 694, on the first floor. On the afternoon of the 7th of June, 1926, Savina, the porter’s wife, knocked excitedly on the door and cried to her father:

-Come down, come down, doctor! There has been a misfortune! A tram has hit a beggar.

Dr Ferrer went immediately, followed by his daughter Caterina. But Diego, the porter, tried to retain the three years old child in his home, placed under the stairs.

On the street, a tram had run over an old man. The experimented doctor’s diagnosis was immediate and definite: nothing could be done. The man was dead. Nobody knew who this humble-looking man was.

And he returned home, he continued having his family meal.

The next day, Dr Ferrer read the news in the newspaper. He explained to his child that the man hit by the tram was the man who was building La Sagrada Família. Indeed, he was Antoni Gaudí, who died three days later, on June 10th, 1926.

Nowadays, Caterina is 91 years old and remembers perfectly well her childish curiosity to see an accident for the first time and how the porter Diego and his wife Savina tried to keep her from seeing it.