Facade and balcony of Antoni Gaudi's Casa Batlló, locally known as Casa dels ossos (House of Bones), in Barcelona, Spain
Casa Batlló is one of the two great buildings designed by Antoni Gaudi on Passeig de Gracia, the other being La Pedrera From the outside the façade of Casa Batlló looks like it has been made from skulls and bones. The "Skulls" are in fact balconies and the "bones" are supporting pillars. Gaudi used colours and shapes found in marine life as inspiration for his creativity in this building the colours chosen for the façade are those found in natural coral. The building was designed by Gaudi for Josep Batlló, a wealthy aristocrat, as an upmarket home. Señor Batlló lived in the lower two floors with his family and the upper floors were rented out as apartments. This building is a stunning and original work and well worth the visit. If you decide to take a look around inside you will learn how much attention to detail Gaudi spent on his designs thinking about such things as varying window size depending on how high the window was from the top of the building. In this way he could ensure uniform lighting conditions in each room of the house.
Size: 3468px × 5200px
Location: 43, Passeig de Gràcia (passeig is Catalan for promenade or avenue), part of the Illa de la Discòrdia
Photo credit: © Tony Kwan / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: architect, architecture, balcony, barcelona, batllo, batlo], bizarre, bones, building, casa, catalan, catalonia, city, decorative, eixample, facade, fantasy, gaudi, house, irregular, modern, modernisme, modernist, ornate, spain, strange, tourist, unusual, window
