Barcelona La Pedrera (Casa Milà)

La Pedrera (Casa Milà), described variously as rising dough, molten lava and a stone lung, the last secular building designed by Antoni Gaudí, the Casa Milà (popularly known as La Pedrera, 'the stone quarry') has no straight lines and is a stupendous and daring feat of architecture, the culmination of the architect's experimental attempts to recreate natural forms with bricks and mortar (not to mention ceramics and even smashed-up cava bottles).


Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, La Pedrera (Casa Milà) appears to have been washed up on shore, its marine feel complemented by Jujol's tangled balconies, doors of twisted kelp ribbon, sea-foamy ceilings and interior patios as blue as a mermaid's cave. When La Pedrera (Casa Milà) was completed in 1912, it was so far ahead of its time that the woman who financed it as her dream home, Roser Segimon, became the laughing stock of the city - hence the ugly 'stone quarry' tag.

La Pedrera (Casa Milà) rippling façade led local painter Santiago Rusiñol to quip that a snake would be a better pet than a dog for the inhabitants of the building. But La Pedrera has become one of Barcelona's best-loved buildings, and is adored by architects for its extraordinary structure: it is supported entirely by pillars, without a single master wall, allowing the vast asymmetrical windows of the façade to invite in great swathes of natural light.

There are three exhibition spaces in La Pedrera (Casa Milà). The first-floor art gallery hosts free shows of eminent artists, while the upstairs is dedicated giving visitors a finer appreciation of Gaudí: accompanied by an audio guide (included in the admission price) you can visit a reconstructed Modernista flat on the fourth floor, with a sumptuous bedroom suite by Gaspar Homar, while the attic, framed by parabolic arches worthy of a Gothic cathedral, holds a museum offering an insightful overview of Gaudí's career.

Best of La Pedrera (Casa Milà) is the chance to stroll on the roof of the La Pedrera (Casa Milà) building amid its trencadís-covered ventilation shafts: their heads are shaped like the helmets of medieval knights, which led the poet Pere Gimferrer to dub the spot 'the garden of warriors'.

Address

Passeig de Gràcia 92-C/Provença 261-265
Area Eixample
Transport Metro Diagonal .
Telephone 93 484 59 00
Open Jan, Dec 9am-6.30pm daily. Feb-Nov 9am-8pm daily.
Admission €8; €4.50 reductions; free under-12s.