La Pedrera - Casa Milà
92 Pg. de Gràcia Barcelona
Casa Milà, better known as La Pedrera, is one of the most emblematic Modernista buildings from the beginning of the 20th century in Barcelona.A visit to Casa Milà, which stands on Passeig de Gràcia and is open to the public, lets you peek inside and discover the impressive roof terrace, dotted with stone warriors.
Provocative shapes.
La Pedrera, or Casa Milà, owes its more popular name, to the controversy it provoked on its completion in 1910. “The quarry” is an insulting name some locals came up with to mock the extravagant and gloomy appearance of its main facade. Antoni Gaudí was commissioned to do it by the wealthy Milà family, who wanted to move to Passeig de Gràcia, like most comfortably-off bourgeois families at the start of the 20th century.
At that time, Gaudí was in his naturalist phase and at the height of his creative powers, so the house, inspired by the organic shapes of nature, has an undulating surface devoid of any volumetric rigidity. His innovation produced a whole that is a typical Gaudí work, where geometric lines are merely straight lines that form curves. Aside from the impressive decorated facades, another outstanding feature of La Pedrera is the roof terrace, with 30 chimneys representing petrified warriors that make an open-air sculpture garden. The powerful religious symbolism Gaudí imbued the building with has also given rise to various interpretations.
Casa Milà 1915
Casa Milà. Unknown year.
Casa Milà. Unknown year.