Gaudi's Wild House and More!

My home stay is only a 30 minute walk from the IES center, which is right next to the Plaza de Catalunya almost literally the center of Barcelona. I walk for about 6 blocks on the Paseo de Gracia, which houses stores like Vogue, Armani, Zegna, and Chanel. That's me in front of the Guess store below, which is in the La Casa Lleó i Morera. It's nickname is the wedding cake house because of it's pink facade and flowers. It's one of the three houses that make up the "Apple of Discord," which owes it's name to the competition between Catalan's most famous modernisme architects:  Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Josep Puig i Cadafalch, and Antoni Gaudí.  

At the Guess store in Paseo de Gracia

Right next to La Casa Lleó i Morera is Cadafalch's Casa Amatller  and to the right of that is Gaudi's famous La Casa Batlló. The most popular theory for Gaudi's inspiration for La Casa Batlló is the triumph of St. George over the dragon. They columns resemble bones and the multicolored tiles on top look like the dragon's back. Most people agree the Gaudi won the bragging rights for the block.

Casa Batllo

Palau de la Música Catalana

I went on a walking tour to see other famous buildings from the modernisme period. One of my favorites was the Palau de la Música Catalana. Crazy enough, in the 1930's and through the 60's artists and critics called for it's demolition. During this time the architectural world was moving towards rationalism and thought the flowery Palau was an embarrassment. I could hardly take my eyes off of it. If you thought the pictures below were beautiful you should have seen the inside (Didn't allow pictures. Sorry!).