Things You Can´t Miss at La Pedrera Barcelona

Considered by experts to be Antonio Gaudí’s most iconic work of civil architecture, a tour of the interior of this landmark building is essential for understanding the evolution of this renowned Barcelona architect, and it’s also one of the best things to do in Barcelona.

Gaudí built La Casa Milà (the building’s real name) at the age of 57 between 1906 and 1912, making it the last project he would complete before his death. Works such as La Sagrada Familia remained unfinished at the time of his death.

So, if you already have your tickets to La Pedrera, you’re probably wondering: What’s so wonderful about this building? What should I pay attention to when I visit? Below, I’ll give you all the details about what is, possibly, my favorite building in the entire city. I hope you enjoy it!

Casa Milà is located on a corner lot, so it has two main entrances: one on Paseo de la Gracia and the other directly on the characteristic corner formed by the intersecting streets of Barcelona. The lobbies are spacious and filled with light thanks to the windows, a main entrance door made of iron and glass, but above all to the light streaming in from the interior courtyards.

The two lobbies of La Pedrera serve as a connecting point for all the rooms in the complex. The majestic staircases lead directly to the main floor, originally designed as the residence of the owners, the Milá family. Access to the other apartments and the rooftop is via elevators. Gaudí conceived the elevator as the primary means of vertical circulation, installing additional staircases primarily for service use.

The rooftop terrace of Casa Milà is unlike anything you’ve ever seen. Here, Gaudí conceived an open space straight out of a fantasy novel. The Spanish poet Pere Gimferrer described this place as “the garden of warriors” because of the 28 chimneys, whose curved shapes bear no resemblance to conventional chimneys but rather resemble imposing masked warriors.

On the rooftop, the undulating pathways give way to steps and uneven surfaces, so I recommend paying close attention to your footing during the tour, though this proves difficult since wherever you look, you’ll encounter sculptural and architectural details that will captivate your full attention.

In addition to the winding paths, thousands of pieces of broken marble and tiles from Valencia are used to cover several of the chimney sculptures because at night the rooftop is spectacularly illuminated when the ceiling lights come on.

As if all this weren’t enough, the fabulous terrace offers some of the best views of Barcelona.

Many might wonder whether or not it’s worth visiting a building’s attic, but when it comes to a Gaudí building, the answer is always yes. Nicknamed the Whale’s Attic, this space was originally conceived in Gaudí’s plans to house the building’s service and laundry rooms. However, a service area is not synonymous with a neglected or second-rate space—quite the opposite.

Currently, the attic space serves as a museum, so in addition to admiring the structure, you can enjoy the Espai Gaudí collection, dedicatedentirely to the architect’s work. Here you’ll find dozens of models and plans of his most famous works, as well as spectacular scale plaster models designed to study the façade and structure of La Casa Milà.

The system of interior courtyards created by Gaudí served as a rather ingenious architectural solution that helped resolve the problem of ventilation and lighting in the separate building blocks. Two interior courtyards, one smaller and the other larger in scale, rise from the ground floor level directly up to the roof. Entering these spaces and looking up toward the sky is a delight for the senses; let’s explore the qualities of each.

The Flower Courtyard

The main and decidedly unique feature of the Flower Courtyard is, without a doubt, its use of color. This space is accessed through the entrance hall facing Paseo de Gracia.

If you come from outside, you will quickly notice that a play of shapes, colors, and light offers a spectacle that clearly contrasts with the chromatic sobriety that characterizes the façade of Casa Milà. The Patio de las Flores measures 90 meters across, making it the smaller of the two.

The Butterfly Courtyard

For its part, the Patio de las Mariposas speaks to us of nature and life in motion, this being its most striking feature. The structure itself is composed of numerous sculptural forms that evoke creatures of nature: an immense butterfly perched on the entrance threshold, or a large wing of some impossibly large insect enveloping the staircase leading up to the main floor. The Butterfly Courtyard is the larger and more imposing of the two, spanning 150 m², and is located behind the lobby that connects to Provenca Street.

Following a similar pattern of organic forms, Gaudí conceived this space as a garage, where the carriages and automobiles that the project’s owner was already fond of could be stored. Access to the basement is via the two main lobbies through spiral ramps, and today this space is used as an auditorium.

Setting aside the curved forms, in modern times the basement of La Pedrera may seem to us like a common spatial solution in a residential building. However, it is of vital importance to understand the historical context in which this project was built. In 1912, there was no similar solution anywhere in the world; the need to dedicate a space for parking a vehicle was not even conceived of. Over the years, this only highlighted how far ahead of its time the building and Gaudí’s ingenuity were, as he was able to reflect on the needs of modern life and anticipate them.

During your tour of La Pedrera, always try to pay attention to the structural solutions Gaudí devised for the various construction challenges. Whether using stone, brick, or iron pillars, he spared no expense in employing the materials that would allow him to provide the best possible solution for each situation.

During your tour, you’ll notice that the interior layout of the different rooms is characterized by a free-form geometry. The absence of load-bearing walls results in interchangeable spaces that can be adapted to the tenant’s needs. Optimizing the façade as a structural system allows for the distribution of loads without the need to overload the interior spaces with beams.

In the attic area, Gaudí employed all his ingenuity to create a framework of 270 parabolic brick arches whose strength serves to support the roof located directly above.

The fourth floor of the building houses what is known as “The Neighbors’ Apartment”; the only apartment in the entire building whose design and furnishings remain today (more than 100 years later) exactly as Gaudí designed them.

Pere Milà lived in this apartment with his family for decades. The interior remains in an impressive state of preservation, so a tour of its rooms is like a journey back in time, offering a glimpse into how Barcelona’s upper class lived at the beginning of the last century. It is both unsettling and wonderful to see how, despite the passage of time, even the children’s toys seem to have been frozen in time.

During your visit, pay special attention to the custom-made furniture designed by Gaudí; true works of art from the Modernist movement.

Access to the lobby of Casa Milà is through wrought-iron doors whose appearance serves only to emphasize the unique language of Gaudí’s work. This same style was carried through to all the balconies that adorn the main façade and to other balustrades inside the building.

Their organic design evokes natural forms, from butterfly wings to turtle shells; the combination of materials such as iron and glass serves several purposes: first, as a protective element against the exterior, and second, as a source of natural light that bathes the lobby space in light.

Inside Casa Milá, you can find several works of art characteristic of the popular modernist movements of the time. This artistic intent is evident in the lobbies, where you can admire the work of artist Aleix Clapés. His work for Gaudí’s project follows themes inspired by mythology, and although it has undergone several restorations, it remains in fabulous condition. Pay special attention to the murals on the staircases connecting the entrance level to the main floor of the building.

It is important to understand that Gaudí’s architecture did not seek to over-decorate the walls with conventional visual art such as paintings; Gaudí preferred to integrate art directly into the form through the combination and use of different materials to express his creative language.

Whether you are leaving or arriving at the building, you must take a moment to admire the most striking, unique, and eye-catching feature of the entire structure: its imposing facade. The facade, constructed entirely of stone with undulating forms, was a highly controversial design for its time and drew the disapproval of many of his contemporaries. The nickname "La Pedrera" (The Quarry) stems precisely from the mockery of those who, at the time, considered it an ugly and unpleasant building.

Casa Milà is considered an innovative work primarily due to its all-steel structure and the use of curtain walls, particularly in its self-supporting façade. In addition to the use of undulating stone to create unique organic forms, wrought iron is featured in the imposing entrance doors (which also incorporate glass), the balcony balustrades, and the windows that open directly onto the streets.

This was the last civil engineering project the architect built before focusing entirely on the design and construction of the Sagrada Familia, so at La Pedrera one can see the full maturation of his distinctive style. Gaudí has left us with an artificial building that wonderfully mimics nature.