Antoni Gaudí (1852 - 1926) was an completely unique and influential architect in the Catalonia region, of which Barcelona is the main city. His worked in the Art Nouveau style, locally called “Modernisme”. We visited 3 of his buildings.

First we visited the Casa Batllo, a pretty awesome house, in central Barcelona. Highlights include the tile and mosaic in all areas of the building, including the roof. Specifically the tile in the inner courtyard got lighter in colour towards the top where more light came through, and darker towards the bottom. In addition the size of the windows into the courtyard got larger towards the bottom to let more light in where typically it would be darker.

Next up was the Casa Mila, nicknamed “La Pedrera” (The Quarry), an apartment building just a few blocks away from the Casa Batllo.The roof of this one was the highlight, it was just filled with crazy chimneys.

Our third Gaudí spot was his last—La Sagrada Familia. Basically a giant cathedral in the art nouveau style that remains unfinished, but actively under construction, seventy five years after his death. When I say under construction, I mean it.Gaudí worked on it for the last 16 years of his life. He intentionally made it difficult and time consuming to construct, like the old gothic cathedrals. He wanted it to take hundreds of years, which based on the progress so far, looks to be the case. Two of the four façades are complete (both cool and different) and eight of the twelve towers are complete. I would love to see this thing complete, but I fear it won’t be done in my lifetime.

Not everything was Gaudí though. The Palau de la Música Catalana (The Palace for Catalonian Music), designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner, was absolutely stunning inside, but unforunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures. It is one of the only concert halls lit be natural light. Here are some photos on the web.