Casa Batlló, Barcelona, Guía del visitante y qué hacer cerca

Casa Batlló is a house on Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona, remodelled by Antoni Gaudí in the early 1900s and now one of the best-known works of Catalan modernism. Its rippling façade, skeletal balconies and scaled rooftop tell the legend of Sant Jordi (Saint George) and the dragon. It stands in the stretch of the avenue known as the Block of Discord, beside work by other leading modernist architects.

The story behind it

Casa Batlló began as an ordinary building of the late 19th century. In the early 1900s the Batlló family, textile industrialists, asked Gaudí to transform it, and he reworked the façade, the interior and the roof into something closer to a sculpture than a townhouse. It belongs to the group of Gaudí works listed by UNESCO as World Heritage.

The design is read as a retelling of the legend of Sant Jordi, patron saint of Catalonia. A dragon terrorised the city and was about to devour a princess when Sant Jordi arrived on a white horse and killed it with his sword. From the dragon's blood a rosebush grew, and the saint offered a rose to the princess. The legend also says four red stripes were left when he ran his bloodied fingers down his sword, and they are said to be the origin of the stripes on the Catalan flag. Every year on 23 April, the feast of Sant Jordi, Barcelona still marks the story with roses and books.

The house sits next to Casa Amatller, built by Josep Puig i Cadafalch for the chocolate maker Antoni Amatller. Together with other grand houses nearby, these buildings gave the block its nickname, because each architect went in a very different direction.

What to look for

• The arched roof is covered in glazed tiles that shimmer like the scales on a dragon's back.
• On the left of the roofline, a slender tower topped with a cross is usually read as the lance of Sant Jordi.
• The balconies and the pale columns beneath them look like masks and bones, which is why locals sometimes call the house the House of Bones.
• The façade is decorated with colourful broken ceramic, and its surface seems to change as the light moves across it.

Tips for your visit

• You can admire the façade for free from the pavement. Cross to the other side of Passeig de Gràcia for the best view of the whole front. Ten to fifteen minutes is enough from outside.
• The interior can be visited with a ticket. Check current opening hours and book ahead, as it is a popular stop.
• Morning and late afternoon are good times for the façade, when the light brings out the colours of the ceramic.
• Casa Amatller and Casa Lleó Morera are within a few steps, and La Pedrera is a short walk further up the avenue.

See it on a quest

The quest Gaudi's Barcelona: The Artist's Masterpieces passes Casa Batlló as one stop on a longer walk through the city on the theme of Gaudí. You reach each place on foot, the app tells you about it as you arrive, and you solve a puzzle in what is in front of you, so you end up looking at the façade much more closely. It is a paid quest, and one ticket covers the whole group.