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Basic information:
Location:
Passeig de Gracia, 43 Barcelona
Qualification:
xxxxx
(5 on 5)
Present
condition: Outside / Inside: Excellent
How
to go to: Buses:
7, 16, 17, 22, 24, 28
Metro: L2, L3, L4 (Passeig de Gràcia)
Visits and timing:
Private owned building you can visit Mondays to Sundays
from 9 to 20 h. (the timing may be changed following the
availability of lounges). It is
possible to visit the ground and
first floors (former residence of Batlló family), the loft and
the roof.
Timetables, prices and other information may change, it is advised to check beforehand.
Fees:
• The price includes an audio guide in
8 different languages- (English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Catalan,
Japanese and Chinese).
• Complete visit:
Individual: 16'50 Euros.
• Pensioners, students, groups of 20 or more
persons, Barcelona Card and Turistic Bus,
Ruta del Modernisme, Museòlegs de Catalunya and filials, Barcelona Walking Tour, 20% discount wich
is: 13,20 Euros per person. For members of ONCE (Blind organization)
companion free entrance
•
For
visitors through Minicard and Barcelona
Libraries it is a discount of 15% on individual fees.
•
For
visitors through Minicard it is a discount of 10% on individual fees.
Available guidebooks:
It is possible to buy in the same building a guide on Casa Batlló
edited by Triangle Postals and titled "Casa Batlló-Gaudí",
text in English, French, Spanish and Catalan by Juan José
Lahuerta and photos of Pere Vivas and Ricard Pla - including a CD
-, and also some other books and
gifts on the house.
Handicapped accessibility: All the ground floor does not have unevenness
and it is at the same street level. To visit the 1rst.
floor it is a lift assuring the accessibility for
wheelchairs. The uper lofts are also
accessible by lift, but the roof and other outbuildings at the
same level aren't.
Information:
Phone: (34) 93 216 03 06
Fax: (34) 93 488 30 90
E-mail:
infovisites@casabatllo.cat
Web:
www.casabatllo.cat
Ruta del Modernisme |
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History:
The present Casa Batlló, is the result of a total refurbishment of an
old previous conventional house built in 1877.
Gaudí was commissioned by the owner Josep Batlló i Casanovas to totally renew the old building. On that base, Gaudí
projected this astonishing house, one of the most fancy and
"special" of Barcelona.
The project of the architect Antoni
Gaudí i Cornet of 1904 was strongly discussed
by municipal authorities due to a lot of elements of the design of
Gaudí over the bylaws standards.
The changes made by Gaudí on the old building were radical and affect
all the building. In fact the building of Gaudí is a new
building.
Gaudí added a gallery, the balconies and
the polychrome ceramics.
Inside, the spaces were totally reorganized in order to obtain in it
more natural light (the courtyard is covered with blue ceramic
progressively brighten to assure the same or similar light on top and on
ground) and ventilation. Gaudí also added two floors to
the building.
Outside, Gaudí carried out one of the most impressive
and brilliant urban façades of the world. He
used for it the typical constructive elements of the Modernisme
(Catalan Art Nouveau) as the ceramics, the stone and the iron
forged. The facade is impressive so much if is contemplated during the day as during the
night, under a special lighting.
A lot of prestigious artists had been working in it under Gaudí
instructions (following Permanyer),
specially: the architects Josep Maria Jujol and Joan Rubió i Bellver on façade, the
brothers Badia in iron, the carpenters Casas i Bardes, Sebastià Ribó made the
ceramics and the Tallers Pelegrí the glass cases - see Gaudí
collaborators -.
Awarded as one of the three best buildings of the year 1906 by the Barcelona
city Council.
Description:
The façade covered by mosaics of splendid colors
is perhaps the most suggestive,
creative and original of the city of Barcelona.
The balconies remember pieces of skulls with its eyes and mouth.
The columns of first floor look like human bones.
The roof decorated with polychrome ceramics of brilliant colors
is crowned by a
tower with the typical Gaudí four branches cross.
The design of that roof is one of the most characteristics of Gaudí for urban
buildings.
The incredible imagination it shows, remember La
Pedrera, located in the same avenue.
The interior is also very impressive showing various decorative elements as
furniture, glasses, forged iron elements, fireplaces, etc.
Gaudí
put a special attention on the first floor, the design of
the roofs is very brilliant and the decoration show a big originality. Artists
and collaborators:
Architects Jujol and
Rubió participated in the decoration, being the Canaleta and Sugrañes
works oriented to the structure. About sculptors work, it was basicaly
devoted to the chapel of the house, essentially the one of Llimona,
author of the magnicent images of the altarpiece.
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