La Pedrera

Casa Milà, built between 1906 and 1912 for the businessman Pere Milà and his wife Roser Segimon, was Gaudí's last secular commission before he devoted himself entirely to the Sagrada Família, and it shocked Barcelona. Instead of a decorated façade, he gave Passeig de Gràcia a single undulating cliff of pale limestone, with wrought-iron balconies twisting like seaweed; locals mocked it as "La Pedrera," the stone quarry, and the nickname stuck. Behind the façade, the building was radically modern: a structure of columns and beams rather than load-bearing walls, so every apartment could be laid out freely; two great courtyards bringing light deep into the block; and an underground garage for the new motor cars. The visit climbs to the roof first, and it is the highlight — an undulating landscape of stairs and walkways crowded with chimneys and ventilation towers shaped like helmeted warriors, some clad in broken marble and tile, with framed views of the Sagrada Família and Tibidabo. Below it, the attic, the Espai Gaudí, is a tunnel of 270 brick catenary arches that now holds an exhibition on Gaudí's methods and models. Then comes El Pis, an apartment furnished as it would have been for a bourgeois family in the early twentieth century, from the kitchen and the maid's room to the children's bedroom — the best glimpse in the city of how modernista Barcelona actually lived. The building is still partly residential, owned by a cultural foundation, and visits are timed. The evening experiences, when the rooftop is lit and projections play on the chimneys, are some of the most atmospheric nights out in Barcelona.

La Pedrera's story is also one of conflict. The Milàs and Gaudí argued over costs and over a monumental statue of the Virgin Mary he had planned for the top of the façade, which was never installed, and the city authorities clashed with the architect over building regulations he simply ignored. Gaudí walked away before the interiors were finished. For much of the twentieth century the building was divided and neglected, with the attic converted into apartments, until a savings bank foundation bought it in the 1980s and restored it; UNESCO listed it in 1984 among Gaudí's world heritage works. Today it is run by the Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera, which also stages free or low-cost exhibitions on the first floor.

Visiting well: allow ninety minutes for the standard daytime visit with audio guide, starting on the rooftop. Morning slots get the clearest views and gentlest crowds; the rooftop is exposed, so bring sun protection in summer and a layer in winter, and note it can close in heavy rain or wind. The night experience, which runs on many evenings, swaps the audio guide for a guided route and an audiovisual show projected onto the chimneys and arches, usually with a glass of cava — book it for a special evening. There are lifts to the upper floors, and the courtyards at street level are visible even before you go through the turnstiles.

If you are choosing between Gaudí's two Passeig de Gràcia houses, La Pedrera is the calmer, more architectural visit, with the better rooftop and a richer sense of everyday life; Casa Batlló is the showier one. Both are only five minutes apart, but splitting them across two days avoids fatigue. Around the corner, the Eixample's grid offers some of the city's best restaurants and cafés, and Passeig de Gràcia's flagship stores and modernista lamp-posts make the walk between the two houses a pleasure in itself. For the full picture, look up from the corner of Carrer de Provença: the wave of stone is at its most dramatic in raking afternoon light.