Casa Milà

Barcelona nicknamed it La Pedrera, the stone quarry, when its rippling limestone front rose on Passeig de Gràcia between 1906 and 1912. Gaudí built it without internal load-bearing walls, so each flat could be laid out freely around two open courtyards.

The visit climbs to the roof, where chimneys and stair towers stand like helmeted guards above the city. Below it, the attic's brick catenary arches house an exhibition on how Gaudí worked. A furnished period apartment shows how a well-off family lived here in the early 1900s.