Casa Batllo was just a block over from our hotel. When we first got to Barcelona Saturday morning we came out of the Metro on our way to the hotel and Lisa had spotted it and got all excited. She had written a report on it for her Spanish culture class and didn't expect it to be right there when we got off. We had gone to it before, but forgot our student IDs which get your a whole 2 euro or something off admission...lol, we figured it was worth it to remember our IDs and come back. So, that morning we had reserved for checking it out.
The front of Casa Batllo, rebuilt by Gaudi in 1904-1906.
The building was a big row house type of building, with several stories built for this Batllo guy who was a textile magnate or something. The trendy thing to do at the time was built fancy inspired houses, so he hired Gaudi to remodel his family home. Anyways, we bought the tickets and entered and got a little audio guide that you hold up to your ear that tells you about the place as you go through. First you go up a set of stairs, immediately showing the nature inspired look of the place...very few straight lines, things resembling animal and plant shapes, etc.
Lisa coming up the winding staircase.
At the top of the flight of stairs, you come into the main salon which has the window facing out onto the street. Right before the main room there's a little entry room with a funny mushroom shaped fireplace nook.
Cute mushroom fireplace, no gnomes though.
Then into the salon, which has a cool light fixture and swooping ceiling, looks like waves.
Here is the same room showing the archways that divide it into section with stained glass in them. On one side they appear certain colors, then on the other side they look different. All the doors and window in the house are made to shut and close, or half open to vent, etc. Even handles on windows are custom made to fit hands in a unique way.
I thought this pic was funny because of the people all with the audioguides to their ears.
A random window with curved shapes. If you look really closely, you can see the scaled texture painted onto the walls.
The lightwell in the center of the building. The blue color of the tiles gets darker as you go up, playing with how the lights reflects down into the house. The top floors windows are smaller, while the bottom ones are larger to let in more of the natural light.
Now up on the roof, even the chimney pipes are fanciful...I think they almost look like some sort of alien instruments, maybe an organ...haha.
The crest of the facade in front, which some say looks like a dragon. What do you think?
And, part of the attic, which housed maids' quarters, laundry, storage, etc. Pretty nice for a utility area!
We emjoyed seeing Casa Batllo, was as if a house was a sculpture really. After we finished up with it we went back to our hotel and grabbed our bags and went to the train station to catch the night train to Granada. We spent a few hours at the train station eating, lounging around and playing on the internet on my phone and then finally we boarded the train. Here's a tease of things to come from Granada:
See ya in Granada!
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