Thanksgiving with Gaudi

The most visited tourist site in Barcelona is the unfinished cathedral designed by Antoni Gaudi, the Sagrada Familia. We visited it, of course, the day we arrived by “Ave” high speed train from Madrid, but that's another story. Note to architecture fans – the hyperlinks in this article amplify the story greatly, take a look.

We set out on foot on a pleasantly cool, sunny Thanksgiving morning from the lovely Hotel Constanza at Calle Bruc, 33 where we stayed the three days we were in Barcelona. Fortified with Cafe Solo (aka the best expresso you will ever taste) we strolled slowly up Passeig de Gracia through the heart of the Eixample district. This is one of the major avenues in the city. To my eye it seems a more beautiful, cleaner, classier version of NYC's 5^th Avenue. It is lined with plane trees, ornate benches and art nouveau street lights. At this time of the morning the street was busy with extremely well-dressed pedestrians on the way to work. The sidewalks are even paved with beautiful art nouveau tiles.

In short order we came to the so-called “Block of Discord.” This entire district is filled with beautiful late 19^th Century architecture, but this block is special because it includes two famous modernista buildings, Casa Amatller and Casa Lleo Morera. It's called the block of discord because of the way the modernista buildings contrast with their more sober neighbors and with Gaudi's wilder, tile-covered Casa Batllo. Casa Batlló is a complete redesign of an existing 1877 building done by Gaudi and his collaborators in 1904 – 1906. The local name for the building is Casa dels ossos (House of Bones), as the facade has a something of a skeletal, organic quality with a dragon scale roof.

We stopped for a while to admire the beauty of the place. We decided to walk a bit further up the avenue and tour Gaudi's Casa Mila, then return to tour Casa Batllo.

Casa Milà, better known as La Pedrera (meaning the 'The Quarry'), was designed and built by Gaudi between 1905 and 1910 for a wealthy family who lived on the ground floor and rented out large apartments on the upper floors. The facade and roof are famous for the undulating, organic look. The complementary wrought iron balconies and windows were designed by Josep Maria Jujol, who also created the interior plaster ceilings.

Architecturally, La Pedrera is considered an innovative work for its early use of structural steel and its self-supporting curtain walls. Other innovative elements were the construction of underground car parking and separate lifts and stairs for the owners and their servants. The building is currently owned and operated by Catalunya Caixa, a private educational foundation. The building tour starts with the incredible roof, moves down to an interesting Gaudi museum in the arched attic, then finishes in a restored apartment with its original art nouveau interior and furnishings. We were there for hours.

Outside again in the now warm mid-day sun, we paused across the street so Merry could take a couple of photographs of the facade. A well-dressed woman approached us.

“Es beautiful, si, no?”

We struck up a conversation with her in Spanglish. She enquired whether we had toured Casa Batllo yet. When she found out that was where we were headed, she was adamant that we should not pay to tour the building. We understood her to say that the tour was less interesting than at Casa Mila. Further she insisted we could get a very good view of the back of the building with its intricate tiles, totally for free.

“For, free?”

“Si. Just turn right down the street right before the building, go into the big magazine, and … “

Wait a minute, magazine?  After thinking about it and being sure she couldn't think of any other word, I realized she was saying “magasin” – French for store. OK, so we turn down a side street, go into a store take the escalator to the second floor, remembering that in Europe the ground floor is floor 0, then wander through the aisles to the back, open a door and … well, we would have to see for ourselves.

We were a bit doubtful, but what the heck. We thanked the nice woman, and headed down the street. A department store existed. We found the right floor, then a fire door leading out onto a low roof. We looked around, no one was watching. Merry, always the brave one, pushed the door open, No alarm. Whew.

The roof outside is set up as the employees' smoking area with chairs and vending machines. The view of Casa Botlla is wonderful. Judge for yourself.