Casa Batlló

In front of you is Casa Batlló, one of the most recognisable façades in the world. The surprising thing is that Gaudí didn't build it from scratch: he remodelled an ordinary apartment building from 1877.

1A radical makeover

The textile industrialist Josep Batlló bought the house and, in 1904, commissioned Antoni Gaudí to remodel it. The work was finished in 1906. Gaudí reorganised the interior, enlarged the light wells and, above all, transformed the façade: he covered it in trencadís, fragments of coloured ceramic and glass, and gave it an undulating movement, as if the building were breathing.

2A dragon?

Barcelona people nicknamed it the «house of bones» because of the columns on the ground floor. And for decades the roof has been read as the scaly back of a dragon pierced by Saint George's lance, the tower with its cross. It's a very appealing interpretation, but Gaudí left no written explanation, so take it as one reading rather than a fact.

3The Block of Discord

Next to it, on the same stretch of street, you'll see Casa Amatller by Josep Puig i Cadafalch, with its stepped gable, and, on the corner, Casa Lleó i Morera by Lluís Domènech i Montaner. The three giants of Modernisme competed here, house by house. The nickname is a pun: in Catalan and Spanish, the word for «apple» also means «city block», a nod to the mythical apple of discord.

Three architects, three styles and a single block: Modernisme at its purest.

4What to look for

• The mask-shaped balconies.
• The scaly roof and the tower with the cross.
• Casa Amatller, right next door, with its stepped gable.