Casa Batllo: Submerged in Gaudi’s Living House

Rounded stained glass illuminates hues reminiscent of an underwater world above the pedestrians on Passeig de Gracia. Bony columns and skull-like balconies decorate the facade of what was once a family home but now serves as a dive into Gaudi architecture.

From the street, you can see the rounded architecture, but you can't appreciate the light and color Gaudi introduces until you step inside.

Antoni Gaudi, the Catalan architect, combined art and function in fantasy to immerse the owners, guests and now tourists of Casa Batllo in nature. From the mosaic-ridden outdoor spaces to the sunlit corridors of the home, visitors journey through the curves and colors of an aquatic world.

Batllo Background

The street where Casa Batllo rests was home to Barcelona’s elite families at the beginning of the 19th century. The building was constructed in 1877 by Emilio Sala Cortes but looked nothing like it does today. In 1903, Josep Batllo, a prominent businessman, purchased the home and gifted Gaudi full creative freedom to mold a flat, arguably ordinary building into the living art it is now.

Gaudi’s work is difficult to label as a specific style of architecture, but it can be categorized as Catalan modernist style related to art nouveau. Casa Batllo is considered part of the architect’s naturalistic period where he perfected his personal style and drew architectural inspiration from nature.

The Face of Casa Batllo

Gaudi didn’t know straight lines. A mosaic of broken ceramic tiles, known as trencadis, decorates a majority of the facade. The roof mimics the back of a dragon, arched and curved, fading from shades of red to green to blue.

Casa Batllo is often referred to as the house of bones, which becomes evident upon examination of the columns guarding the main floor window.

Sculptures, recycled materials and decontextualized objects create Casa Batllo’s facade, reminding you of the ocean and the life within it. The Barcelona sun illuminates the facade, breathing life into the building as the stone, glass and ceramic sparkle. Light and color join and introduce you to a marine landscape.

From the street, you notice skinny columns shaped like bones and balconies that resemble masks or even skulls. These columns guard the wave-like wall of windows of the protruding main floor, presenting hues of purple to the pedestrians below.

Beneath the face of fantasy, guide Oriol Requena Garcia grips a sign that reads “Ask me a question.” He greets visitors with a smile, and his love for Gaudi is reflected in his tone.

“Gaudi has a very particular way to design houses,” Requena Garcia said. “He treated architecture like art. I think it represents a lot about the place and my country. It feels representative.”

After craning your neck toward the sky to examine the stretch of Casa Batllo’s face and maybe speaking to Requena Garcia, it's time to enter. Doors outlined with frosted glass beg you to step inside.

Your first introduction to Gaudi's style and a tendency for curves comes in the form of these massive wooden doors.

Enter Underwater

You step through the doors, and an expansive white wall curves upward. It is outlined by a banister that forms what looks like the spine of a large creature. A small turtle shell window lets in light and reveals the skin of the walls, which may remind you of scales. These elements evoke an underwater environment that continues throughout the home.

The entrance hall is the first stop on the audio tour, which describes this room as an underwater grotto.

The entrance hall is your first encounter with Gaudi’s lack of straight lines. Windows are not square. Stairs are spiral. The walls form a wave.

You walk up the spiral staircase to the heart of the house: The noble floor.

The Noble Floor

Your upward climb stops at the entrance to Josep Batllo’s office. Again, the door is decorated with frosted glass that gives the appearance of ripples on water. The skin of the walls changes from white scales to scales outlined in gold. The color and light associated with Casa Batllo are not as prominent in the office, but this room leads to the house’s main living room, which explodes with daylight.

Josep Batllo's study sports stucco of 24 karat gold leaf, which makes the scale skin of the walls pop.

An expansive window crafts a framed view of Passeig de Gracia. Oak delineates the curve of the glass. Organic shapes help translate Gaudi’s nature inspiration. Stained glass panes rest above the wavy window, resembling mollusks. These sea creature-inspired stained glass shapes introduce hues of blue, green and purple.

If you can remove your eyes from the view ahead and take a moment to glance up, a ceiling of waves awaits you. The crystal lamp of 3,000 glass gems resembles a sun, and you feel as if you’re submerged in the ocean, admiring the waves crashing above you with the sun shining through the ripples.

As you leave the coiled ceiling and natural light behind, you float through a corridor decorated with oak curves and enter another beacon of light: the dining room. Two large windows sit on either side of the exit to an outdoor oasis.

Gaudi's use of windows and light is also prevalent on the opposite end of Casa Batllo. This room is where the Batllo family would eat together, privately.

Two poles obstruct your initial view of the outdoor space. These are an example of Gaudi's combination of function and art. Support poles were a necessity for a sound structure, but Gaudi added fantasy. Upon close inspection, the poles have scaly skin in colors that mirror a sunset.

Through the curved window, you can see Gaudi's trencadis mosaic technique dominating the outdoor area.

The windows, failing to be rectangular, invite light, which in turn invites you to venture to the courtyard.

An Outdoor Oasis

A patterned walkway welcomes you from the dining room, and you stroll to the center of the outdoor space intended for the Batllo family to enjoy the gardens of adjacent buildings. Glass-coated flower pots and tiled floors fill the space. Skylights at your feet feed light into the lower levels of Casa Batllo.

Recycled pieces of glass and ceramics craft random patterns on a curved, decorative wall. Technically, these are not mosaic pieces, according to the audio guide, because they lack pattern and are composed at random.

The rear courtyard was intended for afternoon enjoyment, and Barcelona's sun reflects off of the recycled ceramics scattered across the space.

This short exit from indoors is like breaking through the surface of the ocean and absorbing the sunshine before returning to your swim.

Patio of Lights

As you near the top of the staircase in the patio of lights, you feel as if you are at the bottom of the ocean.

Now, you'll find yourself in one of the key parts of the house: the patio of lights. An inverted sea distributes air and light that flows in from the main skylight above.

Windows shaped like the gills of a fish allow air in and promote airflow to each corner of the home. Gaudi understood sustainability before it was a buzzword.

Although it feels like you are swimming to the depths of the ocean, in reality, you ascend a staircase with two patios: one on each side. The two patios marry art and function, something Gaudi loved to do. The light and air circulation make this vertical room known as the lungs of the house.

As you wind your way through these lungs, the hue of the blue tiles deepens from white and sky blue to indigo and ultramarine. The windows shrink in size, regulating the light as you approach the skylight ceiling.

Bubbled glass obstructs part of your view at each balcony as if you were peering through the water, trying to see past the ripples to the ocean floor.

If you hadn't felt the aquatic nature of Casa Batllo yet, the patio of lights should do it for you.

One tourist, Maisie Thornton, visited Gaudi's masterpiece because it was on a list of must-see sights in Barcelona, but the colors and light inspired her.

"It has a Mediterranean-y feel to it," Thornton said.

The changing shades of blue and regulation of light help achieve this ocean effect.

Where the Dragon Rests

You finally emerge from the depths of the ocean to a roof terrace, which greets you with what is known as the dragon's back and 27 glass chimneys.

The Legend of Saint George explains that Saint George, in shining armor on horseback, rescued a princess from the dragon that could kill with its breath. Gaudi's dragon's back is thought to represent this legend.

From the roof, you can see La Sagrada Familia and Casa Mila, both of which Gaudi designed. Thornton had visited La Sagrada Familia a few days before and could see it from her seat on the rooftop.

“You can really see he left his mark on this city,” Thornton said, looking out at the Barcelona skyline.

Although the dragon and its history with the legend of Saint George intrigue tourists, the four chimney stacks are the focal point of the terrace. Gaudi crafted these groups of chimneys to prevent backdrafts . He made them crooked and curved and decorated them with yellow, green and blue tiles. Once again, the architect combined beauty and function.

Four stacks of 27 chimneys protrude from the roof terrace, decorated and protected by glass and ceramics.

The dragon’s back doesn’t provide any functionality but distinguishes Casa Batllo as it is the crown of the facade and is covered in the recycled glass and ceramics of Gaudi’s mosaic technique.

For Your Visit

As your journey through Gaudi's mind comes to an end, you might reflect on the art you immersed yourself in and grip a camera with far too many photos of curved walls, stained glass and colorful tiles.

Requena Garcia, the guide at the house's entrance, toured Casa Batllo before accepting his job.

"I did the visit for the first time here and I was like 'Oh my God, I'm going to work here,'" Requena Garcia said. "This is amazing. This is magic. The house breathes. It's like a living building."

You, too, can experience the magic of Casa Batllo. For €35, you can enter Gaudi’s living house, equipped with an audio guide that explains each room’s function in detail, or pay €43 to upgrade to a virtual reality tablet.

The chance to immerse yourself in one of the Catalan architect's UNESCO World Heritage sites awaits. Take a deep breath and dive beneath the typical baroque and gothic architecture that dominates Europe. Gaudi is calling.