Sightseeing

Casa Mila

📍 Spain, Barcelona, Passeig de Gràcia, Casa Milà

No photos yet

Introduction

Casa Milà is a unique and famous building on Barcelona's Passeig de Gràcia—a mansion designed by the genius architect Gaudí, famed for its wave-like stone facade and unusually shaped roof. It is another masterpiece of Gaudí's architectural art, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a unique Barcelona building not to be missed. Casa Milà was designed and built by Gaudí in the early 20th century for the Milà family; it is one of his late masterworks and his last secular building. The building's most unique, most unforgettable feature is its undulating stone facade like rock (or a cliff) eroded by waves or wind—the entire facade uses no straight lines, but a soft, flowing, continuously rolling curved form; combined with its rough stone texture, the whole building seems a giant rock carved by nature's forces, like a quarry (hence its nickname 'La Pedrera', the Quarry), unique and stunning, fully showing Gaudí's worship and imitation of natural forms. The most wonderful, most photogenic part of Casa Milà is its breathtaking rooftop terrace—on this rolling roof stand giant chimneys and vents of extremely strange shapes, like medieval knights or mysterious guards (these strange forms are full of imagination and are said to have inspired later sci-fi imagery); strolling among them and overlooking Barcelona (even as far as the Sagrada Família) is fantastical and stunning. Inside are apartments recreating period life and an attic exhibition on Gaudí's architectural ideas. Visiting Barcelona's Casa Milà, admiring its wavy stone facade and fantastical roof, is a uniquely imaginative Barcelona experience.