Barcelona. Evening at Casa Batlló. Poster

Barcelona. Evening at Casa Batlló. Travel. Europe. Spain. Antoni Gaudí. Architecture. Casa Batlló is a house built in 1877 for the textile tycoon Josep Ballo i Kasanova and rebuilt by the architect Antoni Gaudi in 1904-1906. Reconstruction of the house Batllo is the beginning of a new creative stage of the master: from this project the architectural solutions of Gaudi will be dictated exclusively by his own plastic vision, without regard for the well-known architectural styles. A feature of the Batllo house is the almost complete absence of direct lines in its design. Wavy outlines manifest themselves both in the decorative details of the facade, carved from the hewn stone, mined on the Barcelona hill of Montjuic, and in the interior decoration. There are many interpretations of the symbolism of the main facade, but, apparently, the most correct is the interpretation of the building as a figure of a giant dragon - the favourite character of Gaudi, appearing in many of his creations. The victory of the patron saint of St. George's Catalonia over the dragon can be an allegory of the victory of good over evil. The sword of St. George, thrust into the "dragon's ridge", is presented in the form of a turret crowned with a cross of St. George, the facade of the building depicts a sparkling "scales" monster and is strewn with bones and "skulls" of its victims, which are guessed in the columns of the mezzanine and balconies. As in other works of Gaudi, in the house of Batlio carefully thought out the smallest details of the designs and scenery. It is interesting to design a light courtyard, where the architect created a special game of light and shade: to achieve uniform illumination, Gaudi gradually changes the colour of the ceramic facing from white to blue and blue, intensifying it as it moves from bottom to top and ending with a real splash of the azure in the furnish of smoke and ventilation pipes. The same purpose is served by changing the size of the windows that open onto the patio (they gradually decrease with height). The elegant and functional attic of the house is organised with the help of parabolic arches used by Gaudi and in the implementation of other projects. All the decorative elements of the house are made by the best masters of applied art. Forged elements were created by blacksmiths Badia brothers, stained glass windows by Zhuzep Pelegri, glass tiles by P. Pujol-i-Bausis son, other ceramic details were made by Sebastian-i-Ribot. Facing the main facade was completely made in Manacor (Mallorca Island). Items of furniture created by Gaudi in interior design are currently part of the Gaudi House Museum collection in the Park Güell. Casa Batllo is next to the house of Amalie and the house of Leo Morera and together with them is part of the "Quarrels of Dissent", named because of the stylistic heterogeneity of its modernist buildings. In 1962, Casa Batllo was declared an artistic monument of Barcelona, in 1969 - a national monument, in 2005 it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List