A Visit to Gaudi's La Pedrera

I admit that I wasn't very familiar with the work of Gaudi before going to Barcelona.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to spend the money to tour one of his buildings.

Until I saw La Sagrada Familia and was mesmerized.

So later that day we toured Casa Milà, nicknamed La Pedrera (the quarry).

The building was commissioned by a local family and built by Gaudi between 1906 and 1912.

The family used the ground floor as their personal residence and the upper floors were apartments.

Gaudi's style is inspired by the curves and movement of nature and is unlike anything I've seen.

Originally, this wavy stone and iron facade building wasn't appreciated by some of the locals.

I'm sure they were perplexed.

But, it's now been restored and portions of the building are open to the public.

The building surrounds an open air courtyard and is nines levels of splendor,

Gaudi's touch in every single detail.

The first part of the tour takes you up to the roof which is straight out of Oz.

The fans, chimneys and stairwells are all disguised as crosses, faces and helmet clad sentries.

We walked along the undulating roof struck by the oddity of the architecture.

The views of the city are wonderful but the real view is Gaudi's imagination come to life.

The second part of the tour is the museum area in the attic.

Originally this space was used as a laundry and to ventilate the building.

Walls were then put in and it was divided into apartments. 

With the renovations, the walls were removed and it was stripped back to an open space.

The brick arches that give the roof it's interesting shapes are mesmerizing.

It was like being inside a snail's shell.

Gaudi also designed furniture for the space which is on display.

A fellow tourist hoped up onto the platform and plopped down onto one of these chairs.

I made an audible gasp and scared us both.  She quickly got down.

The third and final part of the tour is an apartment that has been restored to the

art nouveau splendor of its day.

These beautiful ocean motif hexagon tiles were created by Gaudi for another home,

but used in La Pedrera instead.

As you walk around Barcelona, you will notice this same design underfoot on many of the sidewalks in the city.

This was the most beautiful apartment space I've ever seen.

It was so open and light.  Gaudi designed the building with self supporting walls

so that there is no need for load bearing walls within the space.

Walls can be moved or removed as the tenants desire.

As I wandered through the space of constant movement and few right angles,

I could just picture living there. 

Guadi designed every last detail.  Take a look at the embellishments around the window.

It's meant to be touched.  Even the hardware throughout was designed to fit into the human hand.

It's a piece of art and I was completely enchanted.

As we walked around admiring the work of this amazing man

we kept wondering why his style hasn't been more imitated.
He was definitely one of a kind as are all of his creations.

We spent about two hours exploring and purchased tickets at the door for €16.50
and an additional €4 for the audioguide.  You can pre-purchase tickets online.


What do you think of Gaudi?  Have you visited any of his work?

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