Casa Batlló
Gaudí's remodelled apartment block on Passeig de Gràcia, open for self-guided visits.
Casa Batlló began as a conventional apartment block of 1877 by Emili Sala Cortés. The textile industrialist Josep Batlló bought it in 1903 and commissioned Antoni Gaudí to remodel it, which he did between 1904 and 1906 with the collaboration of Josep Maria Jujol. Gaudí rebuilt the front wall in sandstone with undulating window openings and bone-like columns, clad it in a shimmering mosaic of glass and ceramic discs, and crowned it with a scaled roof often read as a dragon's back.
Inside, he enlarged the central lightwell and graded its blue tiles from pale at the bottom to deep at the top so that daylight falls evenly through the building. The noble floor has doors and ceilings of moulded oak, a whirlpool ceiling rose and mushroom-shaped fireplace nook. The house was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005 as part of the Works of Antoni Gaudí. It has opened to visitors since 2002, with augmented-reality guides and access to the attic and roof terrace.
Highlights
- Undulating façade of sandstone, coloured glass and ceramic trencadís
- Scaled roof ridge and cross-topped chimney often likened to a dragon
- Blue-tiled central lightwell graded to spread daylight evenly
- Catenary-arched attic and the roof terrace with its mosaic chimneys
![Afrique occidentale française : Cathédrale à St Louis / [photogr. Eugène] Gallois ; [photogr. reprod. par Radiguet et Massiot pour la conférence donnée par] Gallois](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0a/Afrique_occidentale_fran%C3%A7aise_-_Cath%C3%A9drale_%C3%A0_St_Louis_-_%28photogr._Eug%C3%A8ne%29_Gallois_%3B_%28photogr._reprod._par_Radiguet_et_Massiot_pour_la_conf%C3%A9rence_donn%C3%A9e_par%29_Gallois_-_btv1b532798828.jpg/500px-thumbnail.jpg)
![[Golestan, Le Salon et Fete de l'equinode, Teheran, Iran (le Pavillion du Trone)]](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/33/-Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg/500px--Golestan%2C_Le_Salon_et_Fete_de_l%27equinode%2C_Teheran%2C_Iran_%28le_Pavillion_du_Trone%29-_MET_DP202918.jpg)
![Théâtre de la guerre dans l'Inde sur la coste de Coromandel / par M.B.C.T. [Monsieur Bourcet Capitaine ?] ; gravé par Croisey](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg/500px-Fort_de_Calicuta_-_btv1b59706294.jpg)
