Gaudi is a Genius # 2 - Casa Batlló

Of all the houses designed by Antoni Gaudi, Casa Battló has always been my favorite!  Something about the dragon roof and the mask balconies just makes me smile. Like Parc Guell, this architecture is pure fun! When we lived in Barcelona it was not open to the public but that has changed and on our recent visit we got to go on a tour of the inside.  Because I had pre-purchased tickets on line, we bypassed the LONG line, showed our tickets and went right in.  Now George says that skipping that line was one of the best parts of the whole trip!  My value as a trip planner went way up in his book!

Gaudi designed this home for a wealthy Catalan industrialist and his family between 1904 and 1906.  Actually he took a relatively ordinary looking building and transformed it into this fantastical, imaginative masterpiece.  The Batlló family lived in this house until the 1950s.

A few favorite photos from Casa Batlló….

Mushroom shaped fireplace with courting benches, a double seat on one side for the courting couple and a small seat on the other for the chaperone.  This actually reminds me of something that should be in Hobbit house!

Tile flower pots built into the wall on the patio

Interesting columns in the dining room and doors leading out to the patio 

Gaudi enlarged the light wells and added tiles which vary in shades of blue from the lightest on the bottom to almost navy blue on the top so that the distribution of light is even.  Also the windows are larger on the bottom where more light is needed.  Gaudi was not only an architectural genius, but an engineering marvel as well!

No ordinary chimneys for this building!

Look at that blue Mediterranean sky!

Street lights along Passeig de Gràcia
These were designed by a contemporary of Gaudi.