Casa Batlló — Antoni Gaudí’s Dragon House

Casa Batlló—affectionately dubbed the House of the Dragon—stands as a whimsical triumph of Catalan modernism. Commissioned by textile magnate Josep Batlló, Gaudí’s 1904-1906 makeover turned an ordinary 19th-century dwelling into a fluid, colour-soaked fantasy world. Its mosaic-clad façade undulates like ocean waves, while the tiled rooftop evokes a dragon’s rippling spine, complete with a cross-topped “sword” symbolising St George.

Step inside and the magic deepens: skylights imitate turtle shells, banisters swirl like seaweed, and light wells shimmer in fifty shades of Mediterranean blue. Every curve is both artistic and functional, channelling daylight, sea-breeze ventilation and ergonomic comfort long before sustainability became a buzzword.

Born from Ildefons Cerdà’s visionary 1860 “Eixample” grid, Passeig de Gràcia blossomed into the city’s grand boulevard—first trodden by elegant carriages, later by roaring 1920s autos. Elite families erected statement homes; Gaudí’s professor Emilio Sala Cortés built the original 1877 structure that Gaudí would later transform. When Josep Batlló purchased the property in 1903, he handed the keys—and his imagination—to Gaudí, sparking a radical renovation rather than demolition.

Between 1904 and 1906, Gaudí ripped out straight walls, expanded the central light-shaft and forged sculptural, sea-creature columns in the Noble Floor salon. He crowned the roof with kaleidoscopic trencadís tiles—scales of Gaudí’s mythical dragon—while chimney pots twisted like molten candy.

Function meets fantasy: hidden ventilation windows, recycled glass discs and ergonomic door handles reveal an architect decades ahead of his time. Historians spot hints of late-20th-century biomorphism and organic architecture long before those terms existed.