14 Best Sights in Barcelona, Spain

Gaudí at his most spectacular, the Casa Batlló is actually a makeover: it was originally built in 1877 by one of Gaudí's teachers, Emili Sala Cortés, and acquired by the Batlló family in 1900. Batlló wanted to tear down the undistinguished Sala building and start over, but Gaudí persuaded him to remodel the facade and the interior, and the result is astonishing. The facade—with its rainbow of colored glass and trencadís (polychromatic tile fragments) and the toothy masks of the wrought-iron balconies projecting outward toward the street—is an irresistible photo op. Nationalist symbolism is at work here: the scaly roof line represents the Dragon of Evil impaled on St. George's cross, and the skulls and bones on the balconies are the dragon's victims, allusions to medieval Catalonia's code of chivalry and religious piety. Gaudí is said to have directed the composition of the facade from the middle of Passeig de Gràcia, calling instructions to workmen on the scaffolding. Inside, the translucent windows on the landings of the central staircase light up the maritime motif and the details of the building; as everywhere in his oeuvre, Gaudí opted for natural shapes and rejected straight lines. 

A visit to Casa Batlló is more than a traditional tour of a museum or monument. The fully restored house is packed with state-of-the-art technologies, including immersive rooms, surprising audiovisual productions, and an intelligent audio guide available in 15 languages. Children especially will enjoy an Augmented Reality SmartGuide: a fun, interactive way to discover the genius of Gaudí. From May to October, finish your visit with an open-air concert on the roof (starts at 8 pm) and a drink, as part of the "Magic Nights" program.

Budget-conscious visitors take note: The admission fee is rather high but there are discounts for booking in advance online; you can also just take in the view from outside the Casa Batlló and instead visit the Casa Milà, up the Passeig de Gràcia on the opposite side.

Antoni Gaudí's first important commission as a young architect was built between 1883 and 1885 and it stands out for its colorful facade of green and white checkered tiles, in combination with tiles with floral patterns. The client, Manel Vicens i Montaner, a stock and currency broker, entrusted the young architect with designing his summer residence in the former village of Gràcia. The home is a triumph of early Catalan Modernisme, borrowing freely from architectural styles around the world including Moderniste (with its sinuous nature-inspired motifs) and Orientalist and Mudejar (Moorish-inspired) elements, evident in the ornate tile work. 

In 1925 Antonio Jover i Puig, a prominent local doctor, purchased the house and greatly altered the interiors; in 2014, it was sold to the Andorra-based MoraBanc which established a foundation to preserve this remarkable historic property, and opened it to the public in 2017. Recent renovations have restored much of Gaudí’s original design. The marvelous interiors feature trompe-l'oeil birds painted on the walls and intricately carved ceilings; the phantasmic Orientalist papier-mâché tiles and cupola in the smoking alcove on the main floor is enough to make you wonder what folks back then were putting in their pipes. In any case, it is a must-visit.

Gaudí built this mansion in 1886–90 for textile baron Count Eusebi de Güell Bacigalupi, his most important patron. (The prominent four bars of the senyera, the banner of Catalunya, on the facade between the parabolic arches of the entrance attest to the nationalist fervor the two men shared.) Gaudí's principal obsession in this project was to find a way to illuminate this seven-story house, hemmed in as it is by other buildings in the cramped quarters of El Raval. The dark facade is a dramatic foil for the brilliance of the inside, where spear-shape Art Nouveau columns frame the windows, rising to support a series of detailed and elaborately carved wood ceilings.

The basement stables are famous for the "fungiform" (mushroom-like) columns carrying the weight of the whole building. Note Gaudí's signature parabolic arches between the columns and the way the arches meet overhead, forming a canopy of palm fronds. (The beauty of the construction was probably little consolation to the political prisoners held here during the 1936–39 Civil War.) The patio where the horses were groomed receives light through a skylight, one of many devices Gaudí used to brighten the space. Don't miss the figures of the faithful hounds, with the rings in their mouths for hitching horses, or the wooden bricks laid down in lieu of cobblestones in the entryway upstairs and on the ramp down to the basement grooming area, to deaden the sound of horses' hooves.

Upstairs are three successive receiving rooms; the wooden ceilings are progressively more spectacular in the complexity of their richly molded floral motifs. The room farthest in has a jalousie in the balcony: a double grate through which Güell was able to observe—and eavesdrop on—his arriving guests. The main hall, with the three-story-tall tower reaching up above the roof, was for parties, dances, and receptions. Musicians played from the balcony; the overhead balcony window was for the principal singer. Double doors enclose a chapel of hammered copper with retractable prie-dieu; around the corner is a small organ, the flutes in rectangular tubes climbing the central shaft of the building.

The dining room is dominated by a beautiful mahogany banquet table seating 10, an Art Nouveau fireplace in the shape of a deeply curving horseshoe arch, and walls with floral and animal motifs. From the outside rear terrace, the polished Garraf marble of the main part of the house is exposed; the brick servants' quarters are on the left. The passageway built toward La Rambla was all that came of a plan to buy an intervening property and connect three houses into one grand structure, a scheme that never materialized.

Gaudí is most himself on the roof, where his playful, polychrome ceramic chimneys seem like preludes to later works like the Park Güell and La Pedrera. Look for the flying-bat weather vane over the main chimney, a reference to the Catalan king Jaume I, who brought the house of Aragón to its 13th-century imperial apogee in the Mediterranean. Jaume I's affinity for bats is said to have stemmed from his Mallorca campaign, when, according to one version, he was awakened by a fluttering rat penat (literally, "condemned mouse") in time to stave off a Moorish night attack.

For an extraordinary Gaudí experience, visit this private residence. It was built between 1900 and 1909 over the ruins of the summer palace of the last of the sovereign count-kings of the Catalan-Aragonese realm, Martí I l'Humà (Martin I the Humane), whose reign ended in 1410. In homage to this medieval history, Gaudí endowed the house with a tower, gargoyles, and crenellated battlements. The rest—the catenary arches, the trencadís (pieces of polychromatic ceramic tile) in the facade, the stained-glass windows—is pure Art Nouveau.

Look for the red and gold Catalan senyera (banner) on the tower, topped by the four-armed Greek cross Gaudí often used. Over the front door is the inscription "Sens pecat fou concebuda" ("Without sin was she conceived"), referring to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. On either side of the front door are benches with trencadís of playful fish bearing the crimson quatre barres (four bars) of the Catalan flag as well as the Corona d'Aragó (Crown of Aragón).

Guided tours in English available every day at 11 am and 1 pm. The visit includes access to the roof, which Gaudí designed to resemble a dragon, along with the gardens, patio, and stables. 

Reservations are required for the highly recommended guided tour ([email protected]).

The last Barceloneta house left standing in its original 1755 two-story entirety, this low, boxlike structure was planned as a single-family dwelling with shop and storage space on the ground floor and the living space above. Overcrowding soon produced split houses and even quartered houses, with workers and their families living in tiny spaces. After nearly a century of living under Madrid-based military jurisdiction, Barceloneta homeowners were given permission to expand vertically, and houses of as many as five stories began to tower over the lowly original dwellings. The house is not open to the public.

The neo-Gothic Casa Amatller was built by Josep Puig i Cadafalch in 1900, when the architect was 33 years old. Eighteen years younger than Domènech i Montaner and 15 years younger than Gaudí, Puig i Cadafalch was one of the leading statesmen of his generation, once the mayor of Barcelona, and in 1917, president of Catalonia's first home-rule government since 1714. Puig i Cadafalch's architectural historicism sought to recover Catalonia's proud past, in combination with eclectic elements from Flemish and Dutch architectural motifs. Note the Eusebi Arnau sculptures—especially his St. George and the Dragon, and the figures of a drummer with his dancing bear. The flowing-haired "Princesa" is thought to be Amatller's daughter; the animals above the motif are depicted pouring chocolate, a reference to the source of the Amatller family fortune. The first-floor apartment, where the Amatller family lived, is a museum, with original furniture and decor; self-guided tours are available with an English audioguide. A quick visit will give you a sense of what the rest of the building is like and a chance to buy some chocolate de la casa at the boutique.

Located at the bottom of Gràcia, this often overlooked Moderniste house (not open to the public) is worth stopping by to view the exterior—especially from the Carrer Còrsega side of the building, at the corner of Carrer de Pau Claris. Built in 1911, the Salvador Valeri i Pupurull creation is one of Barcelona's most interesting Moderniste houses, with its undulating balconies, Gaudí-on-steroids stone arches, and polychrome ceramic-tiled facade. 

This extraordinary apartment house crowned with an enormous yellow butterfly (papallona) made of trencadís (broken ceramic chips used by the Modernistes to add color to curved surfaces) was built in 1912 by Josep Graner i Prat. Next to Plaça de Espanya, directly overlooking the Arenes de Barcelona (the former bullring, now a multilevel shopping mall), the building displays lines of a routine, late-19th-century design—that is, until you reach the top of the facade.

This less radical example of Eixample Art Nouveau architecture, now an apartment building, is interesting for its balconies and curved lines on the facade, for its handsome doors and vestibule, and for the lovely etched designs on the glass of the entryway. Built by and for the architect Domènech i Estapà in 1908–09, eight years before his death, this building represents a more conservative interpretation of the aesthetic canons of the epoch, revealing the architect's hostility to the Art Nouveau movement. Domènech i Estapà built more civil projects than any other architect of his time (Reial Acadèmia de Cièncias y Artes, Palacio de Justicia, Sociedad Catalana de Gas y Electricidad, Hospital Clínico, Observatorio Fabra) and was the creator of the Carcel Modelo (Model Prison), considered a state-of-the-art example of penitentiary design when it was built in 1913.

Gaudí disciple Joan Rubió i Bellver built this extraordinary house, known as El Xalet (The Chalet), for the Golferichs family when he was only 30. The rambling wooden eaves and gables of the exterior enclose a cozy and comfortable dark-wood-lined interior with a pronounced verticality. The top floor, with its rich wood beams and cerulean walls, is often used for intimate concerts; the ground floor exhibits paintings and photographs. The building serves now as the quarters of the Golferichs Centre Civic, which offers local residents a range of conferences and discussions, exhibitions and adult education courses, and organizes various thematic walking tours of the city.

Gaudí disciple Joan Rubió i Bellver, creator of the Gran Via's Casa Golferichs, won the Barcelona architecture prize of 1913 with this extravagant interplay of decorative brick and white surfaces. The house is traditionally known as El Frare Blanc (The White Monk) for the masía (Catalan country house) that previously occupied the spot and served as home to a community of Dominican monks who wore white habits. Floodlit at night, the building resembles nothing so much as a fairy-tale Andalusian castle. It is not simply a sight to behold: It is also a restaurant, the Asador de Aranda—the venue in Barcelona for oven-roasted milk-fed baby lamb. It was built at the behest of Theodor Roviralta, who made his fortune in the Spanish colonies.

Up the steps of Park Güell and to the right is the whimsical Alice-in-Wonderland-esque house where Gaudí lived with his niece from 1906 until 1925. Now a small museum, exhibits include Gaudí-designed furniture and decorations, drawings, and portraits and busts of the architect. Stop by if you are in the park, but the museum is not worth traveling far for. Note that the museum is not included in the admission fee for Park Güell.

Catalonian priest and poet Jacint Verdaguer died in this house in 1902. Considered the national poet of Catalonia and the most revered and beloved voice of the Catalan "Renaixença" of the 19th century, Verdaguer succumbed to tuberculosis and a general mental collapse. In his most famous work, La Atlàntida (1877), which eventually became a Manuel de Falla opera-oratorio, he used the myth of Atlantis to prefigure the prehistoric origins of his native Catalonia.

Verdaguer's death provoked massive mourning. Indeed, his funeral was one of the most heavily attended events in Barcelona history, comparable only to Gaudí's in spontaneity and emotion. On display at Vil·la Joana is the book containing the signatures of the thousands who took part, among them, Pablo Picasso.

The museum, which is part of the MUHBA (Museu d'Història de Barcelona: Barcelona History Museum), is essentially an archival homage to Verdaguer's life and work. Unless you happen to be besotted with 19th-century Catalan poetry, this lovely Moderniste building, originally a masia (country house), is best appreciated from the outside, as you pass by.