Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
fifteenth-century Gothic convent that once stood in the old town. It was abandoned in the
early nineteenth century and then transferred here brick by brick in the 1870s, along with the
Romanesque belfry from another old-town church.
Palau Montaner
C/de Mallorca 278 • Guided visits for groups only; reservations required • 933 177 652,
rutadelmodern-
isme.com
• Passeig de Gràcia
The
Palau Montaner
was built in 1896 for a member of the Montaner i Simon publishing
family. After the original architect quit,
modernista
architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner
tookoverhalfway throughconstruction, andthetophalfofthefacade isclearly moreelabor-
ate than the lower part. Meanwhile, the period's most celebrated craftsmen were set to work
on the interior, which sports rich mosaic floors, painted glass, carved woodwork and a mo-
numental staircase. The building is now the seat of the Madrid government's delegation to
Catalunya, but it is possible to arrange a
guided tour
that explains something of the house's
historyandshowsyouthelavishpublicrooms,granddiningroomandcourtyard.It'sunusual
to be able to get inside a private
modernista
house of the period, so it's definitely worth the
effort.
La Pedrera
Pg.deGràcia92,tourentranceonc/deProvença•Daily:March-Oct9am-8pm;Nov-Feb9am-6.30pm,closed
one week Jan • €16.50, audio-guide additional €4, under-6s free • 902 400 973,
lapedrera.com
• Diag-
onal
Antoni Gaudí's weird and wonderful apartment building is simply not to be missed - though
you can expect queues whenever you visit. Constructed as the
Casa Milà
between 1905
and 1911, but popularly known as
La Pedrera
- “The Stone Quarry” - it was declared a
UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984. Its hulking, rippled facade, curving around the street
corner in one smooth sweep, is said to have been inspired by the mountain of Montserrat just
outside Barcelona, while the apartments themselves, whose balconies of tangled metal drip
overthefacade, resemble erodedcave dwellings. Indeed,there'snotastraight line tobeseen
- hence the contemporary joke that the new tenants would only be able to keep snakes as
pets. The building, which Gaudí himself described as “more luminous than light”, was his
last secular commission but even here he was injecting religious motifs and sculptures into
the building until told to remove them. A sculpture of the Virgin Mary was planned to com-
plete the roof, but the building's owners demurred, having been alarmed by the anti-religious
fervour of the “Tragic Week” in Barcelona in 1909, when anarchist-sponsored rioting des-
troyed churches and religious foundations. Gaudí, by now working full-time on the Sagrada
Família, was appalled, and determined in future to use his skills only for religious purposes.
