Casa Batlló: Masked Balconies

To stay in Barcelona without visiting Casa Batlló is like being in Paris and forgetting about the Eiffel tower, with all due respect to Sagrada Familia and Sacre Coeur respectively.

The famous house designed by Gaudi is so, let's say, 'different' that tiptoeing her is almost a sacrilege.

Besides the exquisite trencadis (shattered tiles) on the façade, the balconies are like carnival masks, concealed faces watching upon passersby.

The whole building has more to do with patterns we usually find in nature than with man's rationale, like the peculiar contours of the roof that simulate some sort of scaly skin as that of a lizard or a snake, or why not, a dragon, or the impossible arches and oval windows in the lower floors deprived of everything that recalls a straight line.

I tried to apply some symmetry at the moment of framing the picture but it was certainly pretty hard.

Here is a previous post about Casa Batllo.

Modernist Lamp, Casa Amatller, Barcelona

This is a detail of one of the art nouveau style lamps at Casa Amatller on Passeig de Gracia, Barcelona. Of course the original is more beautiful but I hope this is enough teaser for you to visit the famous house and take a good look at it.

More about Casa Amatller in this previous post: Casa Amatller Modernist Stained Glass Ceiling

An Exclusive Bird's Eye View on Barcelona: Diagonal 00

As covered by Barcelona Photoblog in a previous post, the skyline of Barcelona is experiencing a drastic change and the waterfront is no longer spilled with industrial warehouses or fishermen shacks. The explosion of high rise buildings is evident and it is not strange to listen to testimonies of tourists that have enjoyed a wonderful view from one of those state-of-the-art hotels or employees that have the privilege of working in brand new company headquarters facing the sea and surrounded by an idyllic neighborhood. Such is the case of gravity defiant Diagonal 00, Telefonica's flagship head office, a sort of modern Flatiron building in Europe. I am sure that staff working on top floors must have an impressive panorama in front of them every morning, almost like a bird's eye view considering the rest of our urban perimeter is quite flat.

By the way, today I would like to recommend this fantastic video in 3D about Barcelona city in which you have the opportunity to virtually travel on bird's eye view mode over several Barcelona hallmarks. In fact, the video is the result of Oh-Barcelona staff efforts to introduce more advanced visual technologies like 3D in the world of city maps and travel guides. I hope you enjoy the trip!