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

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Very similar to Casa Batllo, this is also a very fluid, unique building. The right way of seeing the building is to start from the terrace. The terrace was so damn quirky that, that itself took so much of my time. There are several chimney like quirky structures atop. 


The best these aren't just decorative, but serve some purpose - some as chimneys, some for wind circulation inside the building, some for skylight and some as entrances to staircases and one even a watertank. While most of these were decorated with mosaic tiles, one of the cluster had wine bottles!!!

Apart from these chimney like structures, there are also 2 arches. One of which frames Sagrada Familia and another frames Montjuic Castle!

Like Casa Batllo, this too was designed by Antoni Gaudi in 1906-12. This is locally called La Pedrera which means an open quarry, coz this looks like one! This came under UNESCO in 1984.

The floor below has a museum that talks about the life of Gaudi and more importantly all his important works in Barcelona. This floor is made of red bricks interior and the curved arched ceiling, a feature that I saw in Casa Batllo as well. This also has the miniature 3D models of all his architecture. 
While looking down to the lower floors from the terrace, the interior view of the windows isn't as fluid as Batllo. Unlike Batllo, this ones has a few straight lines. 
The floor below that was the re-creation or rather the preservation of the living space of the Mila family incl the kitchen, living room, bedroom etc. The way the rooms are placed and the way they are decorated esp, the windows & ceilings look so much like flower petals or butterfly wings!!! Nature inspired Art Nouveau, or rather Catalan Modernism, in every inch of Gaudi it is, indeed!!!
The whole building has 9 stories, but only the top 3 and ground floor are allowed for visitors. True to Gaudi's idea of self sufficiency, the whole building has a central courtyard that allows skylight to come in through the windows to all the rooms!!! 

The ceiling of the ground floor is one visual spectacle! The murals are inspired by plant life and sea life! The painted texture almost looks like moss and sea weed! Not just the paintings, but also the wrought iron grills of windows, staircase railings and door patterns are all flowy, botanical patterns. Frescoes were there around few of the windows of a few floors in a random way. Even the pillars have a fluid feel to them!
From there my next stop was Casa Vicens, built in 1883, again by Antoni Gaudi. This is how it looks from the street that leads to it? Notice anything strange??? Well, that's the life-size digital print on a flex banner, of the photograph of how the place looks like!!! Well, it was under renovation. It was never open to visitors, but now, after renovations, the plans are to open it for visits! I did catch a glimpse of its colorful flat tiles, 3 dimensional tiles, wrought iron grills, and wood & terracotta work in the midst of its closed railings. 
The next post is on Sagrada Familia - Gaudi's most important work, so it obviously needs an entire post by itself. The other UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Antoni Gaudi are Parque Güell (Park Guell), Palacio Güell (Guell Palace) and Crypt in Colonia Güell which I didn't get a chance to see. Esp., I feel miserable that I missed Park Guell which is such a vast, colorful, quirky place. Infact its so surreal that when I showed a pic of it to my guy, he just discarded it saying its photoshopped!!!!!

To Get There:
Nearest metro / bus stop for Casa Mila: Diagonal
Nearest metro / bus stop for Casa Vicens: Fontana
Entry fee at Casa Mila: €20.50 onwards (20% off with Barcelona Card) 
Can be bought online on their website.

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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