It can happen you not having enough budget to visit Gaudi’s Casa Batllo and La Pedrera during your stay in Barcelona. We help you to decide between these two Modernist gems … Or both.

Visiting a nice, beautiful and especially cheap Barcelona is difficult, but not impossible. A tight budget requires making decisions such if it’s better buying food at the supermarket instead of eating out or which Gaudí’s masterpieces are worthwhile. Here comes the eternal dilemma between making an effort and paying tickets for both Casa Batlló and La Pedrera or selecting one of them.

Each building has its charm, there’s no better or worse. Here some of the features that make them special.

barcelona in a weekend
Casa Batlló and Casa Amatllier overview.
7 reasons to visit Casa Batlló

1. Tickets are more expensive (€ 22.9 general entrance) and you have to select a visiting time. It is one of the few complaints that travelers and locals have about it.

2. Casa Batlló is wonderful inside and outside. If the facade gets you speechless, wait to discover its interior.

3. This building is alive. The façade emulates a dragon – the tiles are the scales, the balconies the bones of the animal and above them there’s his back – and inside there are elements such as a staircase in the shape of a spine or the courtyard, which emulates the color of the sea.

casa batllo y la pedrera
Inside atrium of Casa Batlló is inspired in the sea .

 

4. Each room is unique and full of surprises. The Noble Floor salon, for example, is one of the most photographed spaces. Its illumination is surprising, as well as the interaction of the colors of the stained-glass windows with the sunlight. Look up and see the hypnotic golden lamp that turns the ceiling into a whirlpool.

5. Its ergonomic design, present in the chairs or those window handles that adapt to the size of the hand.

6. The golfas, curvy rooms that served as storage rooms or warehouses. They make you feel like Alice in Wonderland.

7. And, of course, the colorful roof top. Not only because of the views to Passeig de Gràcia , but the details that make it one of the most beautiful terraces in Barcelona.

casa batlló and la pedrera
Casa Batlló Noble Floor salon.
7 reasons to visit La Pedrera or Casa Milá

1. Tickets are cheaper than Casa Batlló (€ 22) and being a larger space,  visitors are better distributed.

2. An impressive and organic façade outstanding the rest of the Passeig de Gràcia buildings. In fact, its design was so radical that scandalized the Barcelona society of that time (and the City Council since it occupies more sidewalk than allowed ). Even so, the true beauty lies inside.

3. La Pedrera maintains the original decoration of the early twentieth century, which allows us to discover how the bourgeoisie lived. Where they ate, slept, killed their time or peed.

casa batllo y casa milá
La Pedrera’s roof.

 

4. An interesting historical background. In addition to being the residence of the Mila family, it’s been occupied by a market, a bingo, a boarding house and even a date house. Casa Milá is not only what you see, but the anecdotes that exist in each of its corners.

5. Rooms to be highlighted: the hall, the interior patio or the attic, marked by its catenary arches.

6. There is a museum in the building that explains the techniques and sources of inspiration that Gaudí used for his works, such as Sagrada Familia, Casa Batlló or the crypt of Colonia Güell.

7. The roof is impressive. What stands out  are the designs of the chimneys, guardians of the building. These are cup-shaped, King or Corinthian helmet. An interesting anecdote: Star War’s Stormtroopers helmets  are inspired by these designs.

Casa Batlló y La Pedrera.
La Pedrera’s chimneys.
Beyond Casa Batlló and La Pedrera

Whatever you decide, you can not leave Barcelona without finishing traveling from Passeig de Gràcia to Plaça de Catalunya and, La Rambla. There you will find two unknown works of Gaudí, basic to understand why he became the father of Catalan modernism: the lampposts of the Plaça Reial and the Palau Güell.

casa batllo and la pedrera
Gaudi’s Palau Güell entrance, at La Rambla.