Casa Batllo Reviews (Barcelona, Spain)

Casa Batllo

by missj1981

London, England, United Kingdom

November 3, 2012

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Casa Batllo is a beautiful building designed by Antonio Gaudi. The building is very unusual and very different from any other building you will see. It’s almost like a fairytale building and more dazzling than i thought it would be. It’s a must when ...Read more

From journal The great Barcelona part 2

Casa Batllo

by Joy S

Manchester, England, United Kingdom

April 28, 2012

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Best of IgoUgo This was the third Gaudi building we visited on a busy day of sightseeing in Barcelona. Although we were tired, it did not disappoint and really appealed to our 8 year old son and his imagination.Anything designed by Antonio Gaudi is unusual, ...Read more This was the third Gaudi building we visited on a busy day of sightseeing in Barcelona. Although we were tired, it did not disappoint and really appealed to our 8 year old son and his imagination.

Anything designed by Antonio Gaudi is unusual, quirky and very different, but the Casa Batllo is even more dazzling and fairytale like than anything we had seen before. We easily spotted the house - in a row of others, it really stands out. From the strange windows and balconies, to the colours used on the facade right up to the dragon shaped, tiled roof - this is like nothing you will have seen before.

Although we had read that the Casa Batllo is very popular and that it is best to come early in the day to avoid the crowds, we arrived at 3pm and were pleasantly surprised to find it was the only one of the Gaudi buildings with no queue outside, and although busy enough inside, it was probably the least crowded.

We spent about an hour inside and on the roof exploring the house. It opens at 10am and closes at 8pm. The entrance charge is 18 Euros, included in the entrance price is a great audio guide which takes you through the house, room by room, and is informative and entertaining. This place is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Gaudi designed the Casa Batllo for a Barcelona family in 1905. Unlike the Casa Mila, where he designed the exterior, here he also designed the interior of the house, so the surprises continue inside. The building is actually thought to represent the legend of St George (the patron saint of Catalonia) and his fight against the dragon.

Look carefully at the building before you go inside. The locals call it Casa de Sossos (House of Bones) because they think the balconies look a bit like skeletons - they do! There are lots of mosaic tiles and ceramics on the facade - it is so colourful and sparkles in the sunshine. The colours are wonderful - shades of orange and green and blue. The Casa Batllo is part of a block of modernist bulidings called the Apple of Discord - but it does really stand out. The roof is also marvellous - it represents the humped and scaled back of a dragon, with St George in the turret - his lance is crowned by a cross.

Gaudi's goal here, as with his other projects, was to avoid straight lines and right angles. This is even more apparent when you go inside. We especially liked the dragon staircase, snaking up inside the building. The mushroom shaped fireplace with ingle-nook is also unusual, and everywhere has lots of colourful stained glass and light. Up in the attic, with its clean white lines and design element was another favourite of mine.

You can also go out on the roof terrace on the Casa Batllo. It is fun, with the dragon shaped roof and you do get quite a nice view of the neighbourhood, but this roof terrace does not compare to the Casa Milla.

There are a lot of stairs to climb, but going up through this wonderful building is quite an experience and the lightwells are amazing. As is normal in these places, you exit through the gift shop, but they do have lots of nice Gaudi style souvenirs and mementoes of your visit here. Close

From journal All Things Gaudi

I Was Thrilled!! I Like It

by Zhebiton

Moscow, Moskva, Russia

July 19, 2010

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Best of IgoUgo Yes, very beautiful outside the house, but the fact that I was so shock the interior, I'm from itself is not expected. Search for a house is easy - this is the famous quarter of contention Paseia de Gracia. Why Neighborhood dissension? Because all ...Read more Yes, very beautiful outside the house, but the fact that I was so shock the interior, I'm from itself is not expected.

Search for a house is easy - this is the famous quarter of contention Paseia de Gracia. Why Neighborhood dissension? Because all the homes in the neighborhood, performed in different architectural styles. If you climb up from pl.Catalunya, the first house will be Casa Llie Morera Architect - Domenech Montaner. The second house, directly adjacent to the creation Montaner, Casa Amatller.
And third, you are unmistakable in a thousand - the master's hand can not be overlooked - this is the Casa Batllo, architect - Antonio Gaudi.
Few of the facade of the building. It is unusual. There is so many images and associations that do not know which of them preferred. Like it seems that the house - a large dragon wall covering is very similar to the skin of a dragon. This impression is reinforced roof, similar to the contoured back of a prehistoric animal. Incidentally, such a roof is not just decorative - it masks placed underneath water tanks, partitioned vault having a parabolic profile. The water in these tanks fell into including and drainage after a rain (that's me to the fact that Gaudi's first environmentalist - to use the forces of nature with minimal human intervention). Imagination can be long. They say that the architect himself was present at the façade of the building. Working together they took a piece of glass was applied to the wall. Standing at this time at the bottom of the Gaudi evaluated the resulting composition and in the case of a satisfactory outcome, allowed it to put the glass on the solution.

The house is good and sunny weather and at night - he amazingly illuminated, even in the rain it is organic.

The whole architecture of the house differs extraordinary plasticity. Curves stair railing, apartment doors - no one right angle, lighting yards, intaglio glass. The entire flight of stairs (light shaft, a ventilation gap, one of the courtyards - I do not know the correct definition of this space) is laid with ceramic tiles. But when you stand below and look up, this transition did not notice the color and the entire flight of stairs seems evenly colored.

To attend open several rooms - a fireplace, living room, dining room with access to the patio, a few napkins rooms. I was particularly struck by the living room. Empty-lit room, the doors and windows are made of light wood, and doors are unusual - stained glass windows above them, and they do not open, and fold like an accordion. The windows of the living room - this is just one long balcony, balustrade which the street like a bone or frozen volcanic lava. And the ceiling - this is something! Coiled curl with a flat large chandelier in the center.
From the dining room can get into the inner courtyard. Previously, he was still decorated with a hedge in the form of a covered gallery leading from the open balcony door to the flower garden in the style of trenkadis or irregular mosaic. This style is typical for this area and Gaudi. The garden was, the hedge no longer exists.

Casa Batlló apartment building, there is flat, they inhabited. Front doors of their apartments deserve a separate description. First, the color scheme - a combination of blue and blue walls with light wood door opening is suddenly alive and organic. Very nice. Secondly, the door handles. How and window handles, they were designed by Gaudi and is so comfortable and ergonomic, which would hold for them and held. Moreover, they are convenient for both right-handed and for left-handed. For me this riddle, as it can be like. And, treth, this numbering apartments. It's not just one, two, three, Gaudi himself worked stylized license plates and the basis for not taking the figures and letters. This numbering is preserved until now.
One shudders to think how much it costs apartment in this house.
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From journal catalonia dreams

One of the Finest Gaudi Buildings

by koshkha

Northampton, United Kingdom

March 8, 2009

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Best of IgoUgo Casa Batllo is one of the most famous of Antonio Gaudi's buildings and is located at 43 Passeig de Gracia, one of Barcelona's finest streets. It's a couple of blocks down the street from Casa Mila (also known as La Pedrera - the rock quarry) but on ...Read more

From journal Barcelona Highlights

Casa Batllo

by Roozie

Los Angeles, California

February 13, 2008

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Best of IgoUgo Casa Batllo is simply fascinating. This is a house that Gaudi designed for a family, and he designed much of the furniture that was in it (which can now be seen at Gaudi's house inside Park Guell). This building is different from Casa Mila in that ...Read more

From journal Gaudi Barcelona

Casa Batllo

by Celia Coene

Alameda, California

July 19, 2007

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La Casa Batllò - Another building by Gaudì, a house that he built for the Batllò family. He used the theme of the sea all throughout the house, and everywhere you look reminds you of it: the roof looks like fish scales, the walls are curvy like ...Read more

From journal Barcelona: You 'Gaudi' See This!

Casa Battlo, Casa Amatller, and a la Pedrera

by Tolik

Tampa, Florida

December 28, 2006

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Best of IgoUgo Visit Casa Battló, one of Barcelona's gems, at Passeig de Gracia, 43. Of course it is by Gaudi. The building was designed in 1904 for Josep Batlló, a wealthy aristocrat. The facade, sprinkled with bits of blue and green tile and studded with ...Read more Visit Casa Battló, one of Barcelona's gems, at Passeig de Gracia, 43. Of course it is by Gaudi. The building was designed in 1904 for Josep Batlló, a wealthy aristocrat. The facade, sprinkled with bits of blue and green tile and studded with wave-shaped balconies and window frames, rises to an uneven blue tiled roof with a solitary tower. The fantastic roof represents St. George and the dragon. Locals love the Catalunya's patron saint and celebrate St Georges Daay on April 23. The curved back of dragon, which becomes the blue scale roof, is awesome. The Casa's facade Dali later compared to 'the tranquil waters of a lake’. The downstairs building is the headquarters of an insurance company. Many visitors walk inside for a view of Gaudi's interior, which is basically remains as he designed it. Audio guides are available from the front desk, admission fee €16.50.

Casa Amatller (next door to 43) built in 1906 by Josep Puig I Cadafalch for Antoni Amatler, a Catalon chocolate manufacturer. Casa combines Gothic window frames with a stepped gable borrowed from urban architecture of the Netherlands. Inside, tourists may view the original Neo-Gothic interior; building now is the headquarters of the Institute Amatler d'Art Hispanic.

Casa Milà or La Pedrera at Passeig de Gracia, 92 is one of the Gaudi’s masterpieces. Formally called the Casa Mila after the businessman who commissioned it, the house was built between 1905 and 1910 as a combined apartment and office block. Its rippled facade, with wrought iron balconies, curving around the street corner in one smooth sweep, is said to have been inspired by the mountain of Montserrat, and the apartment themselves resemble eroded cave dwellings, hence the name La Pedrera (the stone quarry or rock pile). You can take a guiding tour through the building and up on to the roof, with its giant surreal chimneys looking like medieval knights. From here visitors can enjoy spectacular views of Barcelona. One floor below the roof is a small museum dedicated to Gaudí's work. Admission fee €8. Casa Mila was included in the World Heritage List in 1984. Close

From journal Dragons of Barcelona

Gaudi's Casa Batllo!

by g-champagne*

N/A, Switzerland

December 3, 2005

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The Casa was truly extraordinary! The Casa looked exactly like the ones you see in photos. That's how picturesque it really is. The admission into the Casa is bit expensive, though, if you're planning to see the whole thing. It cost about 12 euros ...Read more

From journal Gaudi's Barcelona

Gaudi House (Casa Botllo)

by LondonTraveller

Detroit, Michigan

November 30, 2004

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This house is amazing. It is a work that Gaudi was commissioned to redesign. The tour is slightly pricey but worth every penny. Gaudi made great works out of space and put together the rooms of the house like a puzzle. He saw the purpose of each ...Read more

From journal Gothic Barcelona

Casa Batllo

by billmoy

Chicago, Illinois

March 29, 2002

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Best of IgoUgo This colorful facade was the architectural mask designed by Antoni Gaudi in 1904 to envelop the exterior of an existing building along the lovely Passeig de Gracia. This is the most famous member of the "Manzana de la Discordia", and just next door ...Read more

From journal Bill in Spain - BARCELONA

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