Casa Milà (La Pedrera)

Casa Milà / La Pedrera

Gaudí’s last civil building, nicknamed “La Pedrera” (The Quarry), with an undulating limestone facade and rooftop chimneys that look like alien warriors. From the roof you can see the Sagrada Família.

Casa Milà was built between 1906 and 1912. It was the last private residence Gaudí designed, commissioned by Pere Milà and his wife. The building has not a single straight wall. Its undulating limestone facade is paired with forged iron balconies twisted like seaweed. At the time, citizens mocked it as “La Pedrera” (The Quarry), but today it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was structurally ahead of its time. The facade is a self-supporting curtain wall, there are no load-bearing walls inside, two elliptical light wells bring in daylight, and the underground car park is one of the earliest in Barcelona. The visitor route runs from top to bottom. On the roof, the 28 chimneys and ventilation towers are shaped into a group of helmeted warrior sculptures, said to have inspired the stormtrooper image in Star Wars. From here you can look out over the Sagrada Família. The attic is formed of 270 catenary arches and now houses the Gaudí exhibition (Espai Gaudí), which displays models and catenary experiments. The floor below is a restored apartment showing how a bourgeois flat looked in the 1910s. Tickets cost about €28 and can be booked on the official site, lapedrera.com, and include an audio guide. The “Night Experience” evening tour costs about €39. Exit Diagonal station on metro lines L3 or L5 and you are there. It is a five-minute walk from Casa Batlló along Passeig de Gràcia. The rooftop has many uneven steps, so it is inconvenient with a pushchair. Passeig de Gràcia is lined with designer boutiques and modernist pavement tiles, and Gaudí’s hexagonal tiles are also laid along this street.

Casa Milà (La Pedrera)

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