| Casa
Batlló (pronounce Casa Batyo) is a building designed by Antoni Gaudi
and built in years 1905–1907; located at 43, Passeig de Gràcia (passeig
is Catalan for promenade or avenue), part of the Manzana de la Discòrdia
in the Eixample district of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The local name
for the building is Casa dels ossos (house of bones), and indeed it does
have a visceral, skeletal organic quality. It was originally designed for
a middle-class family and situated in a prosperous district of Barcelona.
The building looks very remarkable — like everything Gaudi designed, only
identifiable as Modernisme or Art Nouveau in the broadest sense. The ground
floor, in particular, is rather astonishing with tracery, irregular oval
windows and flowing sculpted stone work. It seems that the goal of the
designer was to avoid straight lines completely. Much of the façade
is decorated with a mosaic made of broken ceramic tiles that starts in
shades of golden orange moving into greenish blues. The roof is arched
and was likened to the back of a dragon or dinosaur. A common theory about
the building is that the rounded feature to the left of centre, terminating
at the top in a turret and cross, represents the sword of Saint George,
which has been plunged into the back of the dragon. |
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Passeig
de Gracia