Casa Batlló

Sunlight is hitting those ceramic tiles right now, creating that famous iridescent shimmer that makes Casa Batlló look like a living dragon breathing down Passeig de Gràcia. You're standing in front of number 43, where in 1904 textile magnate Josep Batlló gave Antoni Gaudí complete creative freedom to transform what was then a boring classical building from 1877. Gaudí's genius? He convinced Batlló not to demolish it, instead creating this fairy tale masterpiece that locals nicknamed the "house of yawns" because those curved stone window frames look exactly like gaping mouths. Look closely at those bone-shaped pillars supporting the main floor - they're not actually bones at all, but floral decorations that fool the eye. The roof tells the legend of Sant Jordi, Catalonia's patron saint, slaying the dragon - those shimmering scales transition from green at the dragon's head on your right to deep blues and violets in the center, ending in reds and pinks where the lance supposedly pierced the beast. Inside, sixty catenary arches create a loft space that feels like being inside a whale's ribcage, while Gaudí's revolutionary central heating system used chimneys that bend at forty-five degree angles before going vertical. The Batlló family, who owned La Vanguardia newspaper, lived here until the 1950s in what many consider a precursor to modern architectural movements that wouldn't emerge for another century.