Casa Mila

When Antoni Gaudí completed Casa Milà in 1912, the building’s wave-like limestone facade and its total absence of straight lines prompted Barcelonans to nickname it La Pedrera, “The Stone Quarry.” The original owners were unhappy enough with the result that they sued Gaudí to recover some of the construction cost overruns. He won. The building is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most visited private buildings in Europe. The couple who commissioned it would have a complicated feelings about all of this.

The Building

Casa Milà sits on the corner of Passeig de Gràcia and Carrer de Provença in the Eixample district. The undulating limestone exterior gives the impression of movement; Gaudí designed it with no right angles, working from the principle that nature rarely produces them. The interior apartments are arranged around two central light shafts, curving around the building’s organic plan.

The rooftop terrace is the main reason to visit. The warriors: a series of chimney stacks and ventilation shafts clad in fragments of white marble and stone that Gaudí designed with twisted, helmeted forms. They look like they landed from somewhere else. The views across the Eixample grid from the roof are good; the chimney forms are better.

Book tickets online in advance; the morning slots fill first. The night tour runs after regular hours and offers the building in a different light, both literally and in terms of crowd density. Prices are around EUR 28 to 35 for day visits.

The building also hosts a permanent exhibition on Gaudí’s design process and the history of the building, accessible through the main ticket. It is better than similar exhibitions at other Barcelona landmarks and worth the time.

The Eixample Context

The Eixample (the planned expansion district around Passeig de Gràcia) has three of the most famous buildings in Barcelona within a few hundred metres: Casa Milà, Casa Batlló (also Gaudí, from 1904), and Casa Amatller (Puig i Cadafalch, 1900). The concentration on one block called the Manzana de la Discordia (Block of Discord) reflects a deliberate architectural competition among Barcelona’s leading modernist architects at the turn of the century. Walking the block slowly and reading the facades from street level is worth fifteen minutes before you go inside anything.

Tapas 24 on Carrer de la Diputació, three minutes from Casa Milà, is a reliably good option for lunch: creative interpretations of Catalan bar food without the tourist markup of the Boqueria circuit.

Practical Notes

The Sagrada Familia is about 15 minutes on foot from Casa Milà. Both require advance tickets; the Sagrada Familia in particular should be booked well ahead of your trip. The L3 and L5 metro lines stop at Diagonal, which puts you at the Casa Milà entrance.