Barcelona: A Guide to Catalan Modernism

Tourists flock to Barcelona for any number of reasons, but one that should not be overlooked is the city’s influential architectural style.

Beyond its alluring Gothic Quarter, Barcelona is home to landmark works of Catalan Modernism, a style that developed here in conjunction with a flourishing art and literature scene at the turn of the 20th century, a time when strong feelings of Catalan cultural identity and nationalism were circulating throughout the city. Modernist architects looked to Medieval and Arab styles for influence, with nature as a central motif throughout their works. These works include many of Barcelona’s most emblematic structures, and an understanding of these buildings and what they represent is key to understanding the culture of the city.

Casa Batlló

In 1904, the now legendary architect Antoni Gaudí was commissioned by textile industrialist Josep Batlló to renovate and redesign a six-story townhouse on the Passeig de Gràcia, one of Barcelona’s main thoroughfares. Batlló was a fan of Gaudí’s work and decided to let the architect have free reign over the design, resulting in one of the architect’s masterpieces.

The building is colloquially known as the casa dels ossos (‘house of bones’) due to its almost skeletal quality. The house has the appearance of a giant animal in motion, with its front full of curves and movement. This animal has a skin covered with colorful scales, represented by the mosaic of broken tiles known as trencadís. The window frames are its bones, while the second floor with its large windows and supporting pillars are like the animal’s mouth. The house’s balconies look like eye masks, while its scaly roof looks like the spine of a dragon, possibly an allusion to Saint George, patron saint of Catalonia and mythical dragon slayer.

Parc Güell

One of Gaudí’s most visited works is the Parc Güell, a large park located at the foot of the Turó del Carmel hill. With the Barcelona of the late 19th century undergoing considerable urban development and expansion, the industrialist and art patron Eusebi Güell called on his friend Gaudí to design a park in the city’s less developed north to serve as the centerpiece of a private community of luxury homes surrounded by nature. Güell’s plan never came to fruition, but the gardens that Gaudí had created became a city park, today one of Barcelona’s principal attractions.

Gaudí’s architectural creations in the park serve as an extension of the flora contained within it. Motifs of nature predominate throughout, with trunks of palm trees visible along the walls and the viaducts, while the sala hipòstila is like a great forest of Doric columns; in addition, numerous mosaics of trencadís can be found throughout the park, such as the famous salamander known as El Drac on the steps leading up the hypostyle hall. Even in the two houses that guard the park’s entrance, Gaudí eschewed man-made straight lines, opting instead for curved facades that mirror the curves formed by nature.

Casa Milà

Another of Gaudí’s private residences, the Casa Milà is located just a few blocks up the Passeig de Gràcia from the Casa Batlló. But while the Casa Batlló met with acclaim from the beginning, the Casa Milà was initially met with ridicule, acquiring the nickname La Pedrera (‘the stone quarry’) to mock its rough stone facade that, according to architectural conventions of the time, appeared unfinished.

With time, however, the building would grow to be appreciated as one of the city’s great architectural works. Its wavy stone facade, completely self-supporting without any load-bearing walls, is yet another example of Gaudí’s obsession with the curves of nature, while its thirty-two unique wrought iron balconies twist and turn like vines in a jungle. On the roof, the building’s chimneys look like statues of warriors clad in helmets and armor as they defend their home.

Basílica de la Sagrada Família

The Sagrada Família is not only Barcelona’s most iconic landmark but also Gaudí’s magnum opus, although its construction is still ongoing nearly 150 years later. A devout Catholic, Gaudí sought to design a grand Gothic cathedral with distinctly Modernist sensibilities. For Gaudí, the Gothic style represented more than just a layout or a floor plan: it was a light, vertical, and airy way of building, with an emphasis on allowing natural light to fill its interior spaces. Nature is an important point of reference in Gothic architecture, which, as we have already seen, was one of Gaudí’s central motifs as well.

Every aspect of the Sagrada Familía was meticulously planned, with each detail carrying meaning. The cathedral has three facades whose carvings tell the story of the Nativity, the Passion, and the Glory of Christ, as well as eighteen towers that represent the twelve apostles, the four evangelists, the Virgin Mary, and Christ. Rather than flying buttresses on the exterior, Gaudí opted for giant tree-like columns inside the cathedral to support the roof, evoking the feeling of a forest that is filled with multi-colored light coming through the large stained glass windows. The vivid colors of the light reflected on the cathedral’s interior are one of the most stunning sights in the city, and I highly recommend that you get tickets to be able to admire the architecture from inside and out.

Hospital de Sant Pau

Though Gaudí is the most widely known of the Catalan Modernists, he is far from the only architect who helped shape Barcelona’s architecture scene. The contributions of Lluís Domènech i Montaner were highly influential as well, notably his Palau de la Música Catalana and the Hospital de Sant Pau, a few blocks northwest of the Sagrada Família. The hospital is a marvel of beauty and functionality, with Domènech’s design appealing to both the aesthetic tastes of the modernistes as well as the practical needs of the doctors and patients. The large complex continues to function as a hospital today, but you can still appreciate its design from the street.