Barcelona: Casa Milà

Ending the last piece of Gaudi’s series with Casa Milà, also known as La Pedrera.

It was not a love-at-first-sight, I felt a little suppressed standing in the middle of the dark courtyard on a cloudy Autumn day, with the tour guide explaining that this is Gaudi’s last and also the most iconic design of civic architecture due to his constructional and functional innovations.

Instead of taking the elevator, walking up the spiral stairs was an adventure – the exquisitely crafted wrought iron work flowed all over the building, both the inner structure and the facade; there was not a single line that repeated, like the wild summer plants climbing up the walls, full of Gaudi’s imagination and freestyle.

Once stepped onto the rooftop terrace, I was stunned by groups and groups of abstract chimneys looking like knights standing there with their visors. Was it really a creation before the 1910s? It looks like the future.

The 1,300 square meter apartment also housed interiors designed by Gaudi, with a modern classic aesthetics that stood its time for over a century.