Casa Battlo

The Casa Batllo (pronounced BYE-oh), home of the Batllo family, was commissioned by Barcelona's most famous architect, Antoni Gaudi. His buildings, which apparently provide more pride and tourism dollars for Barcelona than pretty much anything else, fall within a late 19th century Catalonian architecture movement called "Modernisme" - a kind of art nouveau full of wavy, whimsical lines that reminds me of nothing so much as Alice in Wonderland.

 Front entrance of the Casa Batllo.

 Peculiar wood burning stove in a mushroom-shaped alcove.

 Many aspects of this home are meant to evoke the feeling of being underwater. Note the swirling ceiling, sun-shaped light fixture, wavy wooden doorways with soft beach-like glass, and curvy walls.

 This airshaft through the middle of the house, very common in Barcelona construction for ventilation purposes, is also wavy and tiled shades of blue ranging from pale blue at the bottom to deep blue near the top. More pictures of it below.

 Chairs designed by Gaudi to go in the house. You can't put ordinary furniture in a Gaudi home!

 Attic space with catenary arches.

 The roof. From the front (this is the back) it looks even more like a sea monster. I was never in a place I could take a picture of it, but if you're curious a quick google search will give you a good sense of it.

Soon her eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under the table: she opened it, and found in it a very small cake, on which the words `EAT ME' were beautifully marked in currants. `Well, I'll eat it,' said Alice, `and if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key; and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep under the door; so either way I'll get into the garden, and I don't care which happens!'

-- Alice in Wonderland, chapter 1

 The railing separating the air shaft is made of marbled glass that magnifies the "underwater" effect.

Here's a picture taken through that marbled glass.

Door-handle is an example of Gaudi's attention to detail.