Casa Calvet - Gaudi - Barcelona

The Casa Calvet, built as a dwelling and offices for the textile manufacturer Pere Calvet, is the first and least imaginative of the three houses Gaudí designed for Barcelona's Eixample (Extension).

The interest of the Casa Calvet centres on the imaginative resolution of the rear façade, the decoration of the hallway, and the design of the furniture, purely organic and breaking with everything before it.

What most calls attention on the façade are the symbolic elements. Over the door, the owner's initial, C; and supporting the main gallery, a cypress, symbol of hospitality. On the main storey, the relieves represent mushrooms, because Pere Calvet was a mycologist. Above the gallery, the horn of plenty. The three heads of the crown represent Saint Peter the martyr (Pere Calvet's patron), Saint Genesius of Arles and Saint Genesius of Rome, patrons of Vilassar, in el Maresme, where the family came from.

You can not visit the Casa Calvet in Barcelona but you can discover the very good restaurant Casa Calvet inside the building.

Passeig de Gràcia

Passeig de Gràcia was from the beginning designed to be Barcelona's Grand Avenue. It is Barcelona's most elegant avenue and one of the best architectural walks in the city with lots of Modernist buildings (la Casa Batlló, La Casa Milà...). The quality and quantity of modernist buildings is unrivalled.

It's origins can be traced back to Roman times when it was a path that linked to the Via Augusta. In medieval times the city's door to this road was the Portal dels Orbs (blind people's gate), today the Portal del Angel pedestrian shopping area.

For the shopping:

 
Aside from being one of the best places to see Catalan Modernist architecture, this avenue is one of the major streets for shopping in Barcelona. All national and international fashion houses have their boutique here. Among prestigious designers, you will find Adolfo Dominguez, Loewe, Chanel, Yves-Saint-Laurent, Hermès, Laurel. Foreign brands, such as Ermenegildo Zegna, Max Mara, Escada and Armand Bassi stand beside Spanish ones such as Purificación García, Camper and Loewe. Even more accessible brands like Zara, Mango, Globe, Benetton and Laura Ashley. More shopping in Barcelona..

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Museu de la Mùsica

The Music Museum of Barcelona located in an astonishing construction of architect Puig y Cadafalch.

Significant collection of guitars among other rare instruments.

La Pedrera Gaudi

After the Sagrada Familia, Casa Milà or "la  Pedrera" as it is often called, is probably Gaudi's second most popular building in Barcelona.

Casa Milà covers an area of more than 100 square meters and includes two large circular patios, so that almost every part of the house gets its share of sunlight.

It is constructed entirely in natural stones, and lacking all the colors and ornamentation design. Maybe one of the most interesting places of the whole complex is the rooftop: here you can find a large ensemble of surrealistic chimneys all looking different and like sculptures standing there alone or in small groups, dominating the rooftop.

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Casa Mila (La Pedrera) Video by Barcelona.com

Casa Lleo Morera. Tel : 93 488 01 39. Mondays to Saturdays from 10h to 19h. Sundays from 10h to 14h.

Casa Batllo. Tel : 93 21 03 06. All days from 9h to 20h.

Casa Amatller. Can not be visited.

Casa Batllo - Gaudi

Manzana de la Discordia (Apple of discord) is a contemporary pun playing with the word "manzana " meaning at the same time "block of houses" and apple. In the same block of buildings, the three most important architects of the moment: Puig I cadafalch, Domènech I Montaner and Gaudi. Three palaces, three different styles and three different architects is the result of our big pleasure today.

Eixample - Tàpies Museum 

The Antoni Tàpies foundation was created by the Catalan painter  Antoni Tàpies in 1984 to promote the study and understanding of modern art and culture.

Of course you will find works from all periods of the artistic development of Antoni Tapies. You will appreciate the beautiful library devoted to modern literature and documentation on the art and artists of our century.

The foundation is housed in a building by the modernista architect Lluís Domènech i Muntaner.

The roof terrace alone is worth a visit.

After 2 years of architectural reforms by the firm of architects Ábalos-Sentkiewicz, the foundation was reopened in March 2010 with renewed exhibition spaces in order to recuperate the industrial character of the building and a new entrance to the museum to improve the areas of reception and bookshop… To see!!

On both sides of this avenue there is a Modernist urban development from the beginning of this century, which was created by the chemist Dr. Andreu.

There are some very interesting villas by several different architects. The so-called "Tramvia Blau" (blue tram) goes up this avenue and is the only one of its kind left in Spain.

There is a magnificent view over Barcelona.

Parc Guell - Barcelona

Gaudi's patron, Eusebi Guell, planned a suburban "city." His property was high above Barcelona, northwest and some distance from the city. More than 60 housing plots were allocated although only two homes were built on the property. The project was radical for its time and, as a real estate project, was a failure. The Barcelona City Council bought the property in 1922 and in the following year converted it to a municipal park.

Gaudí avoided levelling the grounds so that the Parc Güell has a network of twisting roads which follow the contours of the land.

The lowest point is the entrance, from which a double staircase leads to the hypostyle chamber, the ceiling of which serves as the floor of the huge public square.
 Outlying areas have imaginative viaducts and colonnades, which in their design evoke natural forms.

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