"We gave a diploma to a madman, or a genius - only time will tell," said one of Gaudi's professors from the Faculty of Architecture on the day of his graduation.
Almost a century later, we know the answer. Gaudí was a genius of colour and form, of bold combinations of materials and of the courage to declare himself to the world.
We probably don't need to do a biography of Gaudí. The famous Barcelona architect has become synonymous with eclecticism, colour and the joy of building.
In his childhood years, because he was very ill, Gaudí loved to indulge in contemplation of nature. "God is my first teacher," he says.
And don't we see in his buildings all the amazing diversity of the world - colours and shapes, play with light and dark, soft lines and inviting curves?
Gaudí's buildings are like children's drawings - with their inherent ineptitude at drawing straight lines, but also extremely colourful, with fantastic details and fabulous elements.
Everyone who has visited Park Güell gives exactly that definition of the place - like something out of fairy tales.
And what are fairy tales if not a colourful vision of life, a memory of a child's world of fantasy and complete freedom, free from the constraints of strict lines, norms and laws?
Gaudí's buildings, without any relation to the others, seem to laugh at the world with its austerity and desire to impose norms.
His first house, for example, was commissioned by a family involved in brick making.
The building was erected in two years (from 1883 to 1885) and it marked the beginning of a new era in architecture.
The design was such that no other buildings could be erected around it. It impresses with its blending of Arabic and Spanish styles, and the combination of painting and sculpture would become Gaudí's distinctive signature for all his later works.
What all his works predispose to (isn't it wonderful that one can inhabit a work of art) is the simple contemplation of the complex figures and the mastery of the architect.
Only with attention to detail, only with concentrated attention in the present can we feel Gaudí. Like life, his buildings abound with small, hidden secrets that will reveal themselves only to the calm and patient.