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Channel: My Travelogue - Indian Travel Blogger, Heritage enthusiast & UNESCO hunter!
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Casa Batllo (Barcelona - Spain)

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When I decided to go to Barcelona, my primary aim was to see as many UNESCO sites as possible, coz it has 9!!! There UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Barcelona is in 2 sections - 7 works of Antoni Gaudi and 2 works of Lluis Domenech i Montaner.

Beginning here with Casa Batllo. This house was originally built in 1877 but completely revamped and given a makeover in 1904-06 by Gaudi. The first thing is that its so easy to figure of the building. Its so damn different. While all the other buildings are pure architecture, this is a mix of nature & architecture or rather nature within architecture. 

All the shapes of everything here including doors & windows & decor have a very organic, fluid feel to it. Art Nouveau at its best it is!!! In Spain Art Nouveau is called Catalan Modernism.
There are no lines or sharp edges, everything is curvy - both from the interior & exterior. Believe me, that's a spiral staircase & its railing that I've clicked looking up, in this picture. That should give an idea of how crazy the architecture is!!! The doorways & windows are just random fluid shapes.

The best part of Gaudi architecture is that its mostly self sufficient. There are skylights and huge windows in all rooms to provide enough natural lighting. In many places, the door panes are replaced with translucent recycled colorful glasses that not only provide lighting but also make it interesting & colorful.
The corridor in top floor, has slits on the wall. These slits are downwards so water doesn't come in when it rains, but light comes in!!!
Plus there are also some unique ways in which there's constant circulation of wind in every room. There are wooden planks fixed along its axis which can be closed or opened to improve circulation in summers or block in winters.


Most of the colorful decor in the house are made with broken tiles and glasses. The ceilings on each room have something special in it like a tortoise shell inspired bumpy texture etc, conch inspired wavy pattern etc.

Even the fireplace has a mushroom shaped design. All the doors, windows & cupboards handles are also tiny and botanical inspired, but absolutely ergonomic.

At the terrace is a small room with a small fountain that was a very beautiful, nature inspired, fluid shape that inspired Gaudi when he was alive. It was almost like a meditation room for him. The exterior of this room was just crazy! It resembles a dragon's scaly back, just impeccably colorful. Its completely decorated with broken mosaic tiles. By far, this is the most tastefully done colorful building that I've seen!!! 

I was just mesmerized and couldn't help but be reminded of Le Corbusier and Laurie Baker with the upcycling of waste tastefully & colorfully and with the self sufficiency that's taken care in architecture!  

To Get There:
Nearest metro / bus stop: Passeig de Gracia
Entry fee: €22.50 onwards (€3 discount with Barcelona Card) 
Can be bought online on their website.

Here's a tip: The best way to go about in Barcelona is by buying the 1-day transport card. Here's the catch. In the ticketing machine, the first page has 8 options - 2,3,4 & 5 day passes, 1 way ticket, T10 (10 journeys), T30 (30 journeys) and monthly pass. The 1 day ticket is actually in another page! You've gotta click on other tickets and there you'll find the 1 day pass. If you're there for just 1 day, the 1 day pass works out cheaper than T10 ticket. You can get this ticket at the airport metro station's vending machine. All these tickets are valid for the airport transfer by metro & TMB bus (not Aerobus) as well.

P.S: I was invited by Barcelona Turisme - Barcelona Card to experience the city for review purposehowever the opinions are my own and this post does not to advertise the product/service.

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