Perhaps it’s because Casa Batllo (pronounced: beats me – I say “Bat-low” but that’s an American English guess on my part) was our first Gaudi way back in 2009, or perhaps the whole building blows me away, this is, outside of Sagrada Familia, my favorite Gaudi.
There are other elements of the other houses that are amazing to me – the dragon of Torre Bellesguard, the cheery use of nature at Casa Vicens, the chimney tops at Palau Guell, the stormtroopers of La Pedrera. But the overall house that pulls the best of Antoni Gaudi together is, to me, Casa Batllo.
Listen, if you come back to me and say, hey, Glen, it doesn’t matter, they are all mind-blowingly, jaw-droppingly fantastic in their own way, I would have to agree with you. That said, there is a bias for rankings in human nature, so my Gaudi house/apartment ranking is:
1. Casa Batllo
2. Palau Guell
3. Casa Vicens
4. Torre Bellesguard
5. La Pedrera/Casa Mila
(Parc Guell is a park, so I don’t include it here. Only Torre Bellesguard is not on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list.)
Anyhow, back to Casa Batllo. I bought the 8:45 early admission tickets, figuring it’s like first tracks at a big western ski area. After breakfast with Don and Jennifer before they headed to the airport, Carol and I hiked the block and a half to Casa Batllo and strolled right in. No lines, no fuss.
The visit starts with a new addition and ends with a new addition. The start features a visit to “The Gaudi dome” which is like Thunderdome except everyone leaves and no one gets killed. It was visually interesting, and purports to show how Gaudi blended the inspiration of nature into his architecture, but mostly it was a blur of moving stuff. Survive and advance to the actual house.
The audio guide for Casa Battlo is really well done, with signs indicating when to push the next number for where you are. We wandered through the rooms, listening to the audio guide and snapping lots of pictures.
The only problem with the audio guide is snapping selfies. We both lazily put the headphones down around our necks, so we look like we both have large growth coming out of the sides of our necks. As appealing as the background is, that means I am not using that selfie on our Christmas card or on the cover (front or back) of the Shutterfly book.
The rooms have lots of light, and there are many striking elements to each room.
Here’s a good description from Wikipedia:
“The ground floor, in particular, has unusual tracery, irregular oval windows and flowing sculpted stone work. There are few straight lines, and much of the façade is decorated with a colorful mosaic made of broken ceramic tiles (trencadís). The roof is arched and was likened to the back of a dragon or dinosaur. A common theory about the building is that the rounded feature to the left of centre, terminating at the top in a turret and cross, represents the lance of Saint George (patron saint of Catalonia, Gaudí's home), which has been plunged into the back of the dragon.”
The key elements of the house include:
- The central section, which is a dreamy white and blue area designed to bring extra natural light into the floors;
- The beautiful Noble Floor, which has a main living room and a small sitting room with an ingenious fireplace designed to throw out extra heat. The fireplace has two seats on one side and one seat on the other, so a responsible adult could keep a close watch on a young couple to make sure their passion stayed hidden. It also had a large dining room leading to a patio. The back patio of Casa Battlo is beautiful, as Gaudi used broken tile pieces to create stunning artwork;
- “The roof terrace is one of the most popular features of the entire house due to its famous dragon back design. Gaudí represents an animal's spine by using tiles of different colors on one side. The roof is decorated with four chimney stacks, that are designed to prevent backdraughts.” (This paragraph was taken verbatim from Wikipedia);
- The attic, which has beautifully articulated arches to support the weight of the roof, and also is believed to represent the ribcage of the dragon on the roof; and,
- The facade of the house, which has many balconies, and also purplish-blue tiles to create the most beautiful hues, especially when hit by sunlight or by lights at night.
As you come down from the roof to the basement, it has been transformed into “a majestic descent to the underground of the House, by the internationally recognized Japanese architect Kengo Kuma.” (Description from the Casa Batllo website.)
Then, in the basement they’ve added a new display in the basement, which they warn would have a negative impact on anyone with epilepsy or people who react badly to flashing, bright lights. From the website: “The world's first real 360º experience. The new media artist Refik Anadol travels into the mind of Gaudí in a pioneering work.” It’s a lot of flashing lots streaming on the walls, the floor, the ceiling in a rush. It’s kind of cool and it is kind of. . .not. I guess it seemed longer than it should have been.
Anyhow, the new stuff is neat, although it’s the Gaudi work that matters, not all the glitz and glamour they’ve added in the last few years. Give them an A for effort and a B- for execution. To be fair, others might find it more spell-bounding than we did.
And now, some Casa Batllo selfies:
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