The Adventures of Polar Bear and Barbie: Adventure #3

The next day of Matt and Elise's adventure in Barcelona started out early with a visit to Casa Batllo. I was immediately in love with the house upon the first sighting. The house was built in 1877 and redesigned by Antoni Gaudi for the Batllo family from 1904 to 1907. The house has nicknames such as 'house of bones' and 'house of yawns,' for it's unique facade. Gaudi used broken glass and colorful ceramic discs to decorate the exterior of the house. The columns look like bones from an animal and the balcony railings appear to be skull shaped.

We were the first ones to enter the magical creation of Gaudi. For the first few rooms we had the place to ourselves. We slowly wandered through the house while listening to our audio guide. The first room we entered contained the private staircase of the Batllo family. It felt like we were in the stomach of a strange reptilian creature. The staircase is made of wood and curves up like a backbone. We then entered the sitting room, in which there is a delightful fireplace cove in the shape of a mushroom. There is detail in every aspect of this house, while keeping function in mind. For example Gaudi designed the door knobs to fit the shape of a person's hand.

The next room is the living room and my favorite part of the house. Look at the windows! I want to live in this house or at least an exact replica.

Matt and I walked through the dinning room and out onto the back patio. The rear facade of the house is just as amazing. The floor is tiled, there are mosaic flower boxes, and broken glass on the wall.

Next we took the stairs to the attic of the house, which is where the servants lived. The floor tiles have flowers on them.

After the attic we went to the roof of the house. Which is an area I had been looking forward to. The chimneys are as colorful and original as the rest of the house. The titled portion of the roof is made to look like the scales of a dragon. People believe that Gaudi was trying to recreate St. George killing the Dragon. There is also a Gaudi cross, which he put on many buildings.

We took the public staircase down. Gaudi made a sky light in the middle of the house so that all the central rooms would have windows and natural light. The wall tiles are dark blues and grays on the top floor and slowly become lighter towards the bottom floor. The windows on the top floor are small and grow in size towards the bottom. This is to maximize the light entering rooms on different levels of the house. If you bend down to look through the railing the glass is wavy and gives the feeling of being under water.