Casa Milà, Barcelona, Guida per visitatori e cosa fare nei dintorni

Casa Milà, better known in Barcelona as La Pedrera, is an apartment building designed by Antoni Gaudí on Passeig de Gràcia. It is one of the architect's best-known works, famous for a rippling stone facade with no straight lines to speak of, and it is part of Barcelona's Gaudí heritage.

The story behind it

Gaudí designed the building for Roser Segimón and her husband Pere Milà, and it carries the husband's name. Barcelona gave it another one almost at once: La Pedrera, meaning the stone quarry, because the rough, undulating front looked to many locals like a quarried cliff rather than a polished townhouse.

Gaudí was a devout Catholic, and religious imagery was part of his vision for the house. The turbulent years around 1909, known as the Tragic Week, changed the mood in the city and affected how the project played out. The building was nonetheless finished, and today it is looked after by a foundation and open to visitors as a cultural site.

What to look for

• The facade of pale stone, which swells and curves like a wave and makes the whole corner of the street feel soft rather than solid.
• The twisting wrought iron balconies, which look more like seaweed or tangled vines than railings.
• The entrance halls and inner courtyards, where you can see how Gaudí brought light and air into the middle of the building.
• The rooftop, with its sculpted chimneys and stairwell exits, which stand like figures guarding the skyline.

Tips for your visit

• You can go inside and onto the roof, but entry is ticketed, so check current opening hours and book ahead in busy seasons.
• Allow about an hour to ninety minutes for a visit inside, or ten minutes if you only want to admire the facade from the pavement.
• Look at the facade from across Passeig de Gràcia first, where you can take in the whole curve of the building.
• Casa Batlló, another Gaudí building, is further along the same avenue, so the two pair well on a short walk.

See it on a quest

Casa Milà is one stop on Gaudi's Barcelona: The Artist's Masterpieces, a self-guided walk themed around Gaudí's work. You reach the building on foot as part of a longer route through the city, the app tells you about each place as you arrive, and you solve a puzzle based on what is right in front of you, which makes you look at the facade far more closely than most passers-by do. You can start whenever you like, with no guide and no group to join, and one ticket covers the whole group.