Casa Amatller and Casa Batlló, Barcelona

Casa Amatller  is a building in Barcelona along with adjacent Casa Batlló  and both are important tourist spot in Catalonia. While the first one is  designed by  Josep Puig  i Cadafalch, the latter is designed by the famous Barcelonian architect Gaudi. Along with  Casa Lleo Morera , they  make up the three most important buildings in Barcelona’s famous Illa de la Discòrdia   noted for its unique modernist buildings.

Casa Amatller  was originally designed as a residence for chocolatier Antoni Amatller and was constructed between 1898 and 1900 and nowadays one of the prominent tourist attraction

  

  

  

  

  

  

Casa Batlló is a renowned building located juxtaposed to Casa Amatller  and is one of Antoni Gaudí’s masterpieces in Modernisme or Art Nouveau. The ground floor has unusual tracery, irregular oval windows and flowing sculpted stone work. There are few straight lines, and much of the façade is decorated with a colorful mosaic made of broken ceramic tiles (trencadís). The roof is arched and mimicked  the back of a dragon. The most attractive aspect of Gaudi’s work , for me is the asymmetry . It is everywhere in the buildings, doors, windows,in triangles, squares and straight line, and I have never seen this unique style anywhere else in the world (in my limited travel).

  

The Batlló family was very well known in Barcelona for its contribution to the textile industry. Mr. Josep Batlló I Casanovas was a textile industrialist who owned a few factories in the city. Batlló family decided to buy the place due to its centralized location in Passeig de Gracia,  very prestigious and fashionable area in 20th century. Batlló married Amalia Belaunzaran, and decided to shift in a house designed differently from that of the rest of his family.  He chose Gaudi for his far -from-mainstream style of architecture which gave us this unique piece of architecture .

We went to this place from Park Guell, so I won’t be able to give you the best direction. We’ve got a bus from there. But it is not far from the city centre(Catalunya metro I think)  and I saw a metro station in 2 minutes walking. So do some research and go for it !

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[originally posted on April 10th, 2015, reposted on July 17th 2016]