Barcelona Online | Architecture

Barcelona's great architecture
Ruta del Modernisme
The Ruta del Modernisme site was formerly one of our top 10 Barcelona sites, with the new version slightly disappointing in comparison.

The "Ruta del Modernismo" takes you on an itinerary of 115 of Barcelona's fascinating modernista architecture sites, not just the famous buildings like the Pedrera (aka the Casa Milà) and the Casa Batllò on the Passeig de Gracia (and just about every postcard of Barcelona) but also shops and streetlamps and the like. And not just Gaudí either, with the work of Domènech i Montaner and Puig i Cadafalch also being well-represented.

From the Tourist Office (SE corner of the Plaza Catalunya), for €12 euros you can equip yourself with a map showing you the 115 locations, a guide to Barcelona's amazing modernista bars and restaurants and a card that gets you up to 50% what you'll have to cough up to get into those of the sites that you can actually go round. Well worth it.

•We liked: The maps on the old site!
•Not so hot: The queues to get into some of the more famous buildings
•Languages: English (very limited), Spanish, Catalan and French

Enciclopedia Catalana
More about Modernisme
Want to know more about "Modernisme"? This page from the Enciclopedia Catalana gives you a good introduction, as well as a series of links to further pages on architects and painters and their work.

The encyclopedia itself is a good place to search for anyone interested in all aspects of Barcelona.

•Languages: English, Catalan
•We liked: The information on the main Barcelona page
•Not so hot: The navigation on the site

Gaudi All Gaudi
Gaudi and Art Nouveau in Catalonia
Despite its name, this site claims to be "the most comprehensive site on Catalan Art Nouveau", not just Gaudi. In fact, this is not a bad place to start for anyone interested in the the architecture of Barcelona – particularly because it rightly gives the idea that there was a lot more to it than just Gaudí.

The site has sections on the decorative arts, painting, sculpture and others.

•We liked: Some of the images (you know your Art Nouveau? We challenge you to identify some of them – they're not captioned; rollover to check your answers)
•Not so hot: The English could do with a bit of tidying up
•Languages: English, Spanish, Catalan, French

El poder de la palabra... or the stone mason!
Barcelona architecture
There is a lot more to Barcelona's architecture than just Gaudí - and the other modernists - as this site goes to show. While it also covers art, literature and music, the site has a particularly interesting section on Barcelona's architecture, with modern architecture being given as much coverage as modernism.

While the accompanying text is sometimes a little scanty (except in the biographies), the pictures are excellent. Oh, okay, here you are: I know you just want Gaudí...

•Languages: Spanish

Palau Baró de Quadras
Casa Asia
Like many of Barcelona's spectacular buildings, the Palau Baró de Quadras (Av. Diagonal 373) was commissioned by a stinkingly rich private patron. A remodelled house designed by Puig i Cadafalch for the Baron of Quadras, who having newly acquired his title also wanted to acquire suitable property, the Palau now houses the Casa Asia, "a cultural information and reference centre for the Asia-Pacific region" and a "point of encounter for Spanish society and the Asian world."

•We liked: The house itself
•Not so hot: The website has regrettably little on Palau itself
•Languages: English, Spanish, Catalan, Basque, Galician

The neatly designed website has -- among other things -- the 360º views you would get from the tower.

•We liked: It does look spectacular when it starts to light up at sundown
•Not so hot: Did Barcelona really need yet another office block?
•Languages: English, Spanish, Catalan

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