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Address: Passeig de Gracia 43
Phone: 93 488 06 66
Transportation:
Metro: lines 3 and 5 (Diagonal) FGC (Provença) RENFE (Pg. de Gràcia)
Bus: lines 22, 24, 16, 17. Tourist Bus and Tomb Bus
The Casa Batlló is privately owned by a corporation and was open for the general public during 2002 (the year Gaudí) and 2003. It is uncertain if it will be open again in the near future.
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The Casa Batlló (Batlló House) is a colourist apartment building in Passeig de Gràcia, near La Pedrera.
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Facade of Casa Batllo
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It wasn't an original work by Gaudi; instead, he was responsible of its renovation, from 1904 to 1906. Its owner was Josep Batlló i Casanovas, a textile industrialist. If the Casa Batllío is impressive, it's not isolated in its beauty, for its neighbours are other two Modernist works, the Casa Amatller by Puig i Cadafalch and the Casa Lleó Morera by Domènech i Montaner. Together with the Casa Batlló, the three buildings form the Manzana de la Discordia, the Block of Discord, in allusion to the effort of its respective owners to build the most outstanding house of Passeig de Gràcia.
Gaudí showed his brilliance with natural forms, a wealth of undulating forms, different motifs, and bright and subtle colours in polychrome ceramics, the most striking feature of Casa Batllo. They cover the façade, reminding the skin of a dragon, accompanied by human bones (the columns framing the windows of the roofed open gallery at the first floor). Iron balconies in the form of masks interrupt the ceramics and multi-colored glass mosaics of the upper part. Crowning the building there is a roof whose the tiles seem the scales in the skin of a reptile.
Gaudí, who created some of his best interior design pieces in this work, decorated the interior of the first floor with wonderful fireplaces, wooden floors, furniture, stained glass, and wrought iron elements.
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