If you’re not a fan of Antoni Gaudi’s confections Casa Milà, more commonly known as La Pedrera, will change your mind.
Casa Milà was built for the married couple Roser Segimon and Pere Milà. Roser Segimon was the wealthy widow of Josep Guardiola, an Indiano (a term applied to the Spaniards returning from the American colonies with tremendous wealth). Her second husband, Pere Milà, was a developer criticized for his flamboyant lifestyle. Residents of Barcelona joked about his love of money and opulence, wondering if he was not rather more interested in “the widow’s guardiola”, that in Catalan means piggy bank, than in “Guardiola’s widow”.
Curvacious and bold the building was constructed from 1906 to 1912 and is an absolute treasure. The owners of Casa Milà claimed one floor and rented out the rest of the building as apartments.
The €20 admission gains access to the terrace at the top of the building, the attic immediately below the terrace, and then one of the apartments which wraps around the central courtyard. From the ground floor an elevator takes you directly to the terrace where the doors open onto an unexpected landscape.
Instead of metal pipes Gaudi built beautiful sculptures on the roof to hide the vents and pipes that a building needs to operate.
It is said that the terrace at La Pedrera inspired the strange landscape in Star Wars.
Each surface was hand shaped to be smooth and curvy and delicious.
Beautiful!
Everywhere you looked on the rooftop was a feast for the eyes.
But the rooftop was just a warmup for what came next in the attic. The attic was originally used as the common area for the building residents.
It now houses a small collection of Gaudi-designed fixtures and furniture including this chandelier.
Each of his pieces were inspired by the human form which isn’t angular and hard but curvy and soft.
The last portion of the visit to La Pedrera is one of the apartments that wraps around the inner courtyard.
They were modern and spacious for their time with space for servants, indoor plumbing, and kitchens with large work spaces, and beautiful tall ceilings and doorways.
Even the staircases had curvy wainscotting.
La Pedrera is an absolute masterpiece that demands to be seen. Don’t miss it!
Wonderful.
