View Full Version : [Barcelona] Casa Batllo (1904-1906) - Antonio Gaudi
Gummy_Void
06-09-2005, 05:51
On my recent trip back to Ireland, I had to stop in Barcelona for a stag/bucks weekend. (The pre-marriage party for the groom) before the beer fuelled mayhem, I managed to visit Casa Batllo, which was celebrating a centenary of sorts.
New areas of the house were open to the public for the first time. The most impressive of these was the laundry.
Casa Batllo (1904-1906)
Architect: Antonio Gaudi
Address: 86 Promenejo de Gracia
Website http://www.barcelona-gaudi.com/
Camera: Pentax Optio 3.2 mp
How to go to
Buses: 7, 16, 17, 22, 24, 28
Metro: L2, L3, L4 (Passeig de Gràcia)
Visits
Private owned building you can visit during the year 2003 Mondays to Sundays from 9 to 20 h. (except on days with programmed activities with a closing time at 14 h.). Since March 2004 it is possible to visit in addition of the ground and first floors, the loft and the roof.
Fees
10 Euros -the price includes an audio guide in 6 different languages (English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Catalan). Pensioners, students and groups of 25 or more persons, 8 Euros per person. Complete visit: 16 Euros, pensioners, students, groups of 25 or more persons, Barcelona Card and Turistic Bus 12,80 Euros per person.
Available guidebooks
It is possible to buy in the same building a guide on Casa Batlló edited by Triangle Postals and titled "Casa Batlló-Gaudí", text in English, French, Spanish and Catalan by Juan José Lahuerta and photos of Pere Vivas and Ricard Pla - including a CD -, and also some other books and gifts on the house.
Information
phone (34) 93 216 03 06
Gummy_Void
06-09-2005, 05:51
1
Gummy_Void
06-09-2005, 05:51
Facade 2
Gummy_Void
06-09-2005, 05:53
The Façade
The slender columns of sandstone from Montjuic which seem like tibias have given the house the popular nickname the House of Bones, where as the warped shape of the empty spaces, that remind people of open mouths, turned it into the House of Yawns
Gummy_Void
06-09-2005, 05:53
The balconies are also of Montjuic stone, with cast iron rails painted in ivory and gold.
Gummy_Void
06-09-2005, 05:54
Detail of a "knuckle"
Gummy_Void
06-09-2005, 05:55
The Main lounge
Gummy_Void
06-09-2005, 05:55
The main room opens up onto the street through a stained glass window. The windows are sash windows, with a complex counterweight mechanism hidden in the ends. There are no jambs or transoms between each window, so when they are all up there is an unimpeded view onto the street.
Gummy_Void
06-09-2005, 05:56
The ceiling of the central lounge is smooth plaster that forms a whirlpool, a form which can be found all over the house, carved in doors, in ceramic mosaics etc.
Gummy_Void
06-09-2005, 05:57
Another view
Gummy_Void
06-09-2005, 05:57
These undulating oak doors open fully also, making the two rooms into one space.
Gummy_Void
06-09-2005, 05:59
Extraordinary lighting detail in one of the newly opened rooms
Gummy_Void
06-09-2005, 06:00
The façade is topped by a small cylindrical tower that culminates in a four armed cross and an undulating roof covered on the side facing the street with large ceramic pieces of differing tones of electric blue that form scales. It’s often referred to as the Dragons back.
The roof side of this wall is covered in ceramic and glass trencadis, whose colour graduates from white through yellow to an orangey green colour.
Gummy_Void
06-09-2005, 06:01
The ‘backbone’ is formed by a succession of spherical ceramic pieces in blues and greens.
Gummy_Void
06-09-2005, 06:02
The chimneys
Gummy_Void
06-09-2005, 06:03
Another view
Gummy_Void
06-09-2005, 06:04
The attic is a bricked parabolic vault, plastered and painted white. It was used as a store room, washroom and drying space
Gummy_Void
06-09-2005, 06:04
The illumination and ventilation of the space and corridors surrounding the roof courtyard is achieved by means of fixed slats or louvres built into the walls.
Gummy_Void
06-09-2005, 06:05
Took ages waiting for this room to empty....too many tourists man!
Gummy_Void
06-09-2005, 06:06
last one.
Gummy_Void
06-09-2005, 06:08
I have lots more - but figured this was enough in one sitting.
Hope you enjoy them.
:cheers:
Gummy.
primocordara
06-09-2005, 06:52
Cool! I couldn't visit this building when I was there, it was being restored!
Here is the google earth... (I'm getting a bit maniac with this)
Gummy_Void
06-09-2005, 07:47
Thanks primo - a useful addition.
:cheers:
Gummy
The pics are great! Thank you very much Gummy!
The rest of the pics are welcome if you're up to posting them, but right now it alredy is an incredible contribution.
Incredible , the genius of the man !! :not worth
Thanks a lot .
dkidston
06-09-2005, 09:53
Some great images Gummy, thanks.
dk
sigue2000
06-09-2005, 10:46
Wooow! Those rooftiles are so cool. Thanks for this small insight into an incredible piece of architecture. This one to me is art. :rock on:
primocordara
06-09-2005, 12:15
It's incredible this man was rejected as an "Artisan" or "craftsman" by the Modern Architects.
He only became to be fully recognized in the last decades.
As Louis Khan, his corpse also laid unclaimed for two days at the morgue...
He was run over by a tram as he backed up looking to the facade of he Sagrada Familia...
franjayo
06-09-2005, 13:03
I knew it was a traffic accident, but I did not know this detail, thanks Marcelo.
Gaudi's work is the highest form of art and architecture, totally original, not classifiable. His iron works are very intricate, a craft he started to learn form his father. Today's Barcelona designs owe a lot to Gaudi's spirit of design.
Juan Gomez-Velez
06-09-2005, 14:14
Architects seem accident prone.
In Puerto Rico, an Architect of hungarian origin, Antonin Nechodoma, a prodigious and prolific designer and artisan, died in an auto accident in the early twenties, his name hardly remembered some thirty years hence. Our own, ( yes, our own ) Henry Klumb also died in an auto accident, together with his wife in 1984.
Saludos
Juan
Very nice post. :clap: Thank you. :cheers:
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