Casa Milà: La Pedrera, the Stone Quarry
Why is it significant?
Stand back on the corner of Carrer de Provença and let the building roll over you. There is hardly a straight line on this façade: the pale stone billows in waves, the balconies hang like knots of seaweed in twisted iron, and the whole corner looks shaped by wind and water rather than built.
Key Facts
| Place | Casa Milà: La Pedrera, the Stone Quarry |
|---|---|
| Address | Passeig de Gràcia 92, 08008 Barcelona, Spain |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.39540, 2.16180 |
| Part of Walk | The Block of Discord: Barcelona's Passeig de Gràcia and the Modernista Rivalry |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand back on the corner of Carrer de Provença and let the building roll over you. There is hardly a straight line on this façade: the pale stone billows in waves, the balconies hang like knots of seaweed in twisted iron, and the whole corner looks shaped by wind and water rather than built.
When it went up, between 1906 and 1912, Barcelona was not impressed. People mocked it as La Pedrera, the stone quarry, and the satirical papers had a field day with caricatures. The insult stuck so well that today it is the name everyone uses, the official one included.
The house was commissioned by Pere Milà and his wife Roser Segimon, a wealthy widow whose first husband had made a fortune in the Americas. Behind the waves hides a radical idea: the façade holds nothing up. The building rests on pillars and beams, so the walls inside could be placed anywhere, and Gaudí designed ramps so that carriages, and later cars, could drive down into the basement. On the roof, chimneys and ventilation towers stand like helmeted warriors, and people love to say they inspired the stormtroopers of Star Wars... a claim nobody has ever proved.
The top was meant to be crowned by a great statue of the Virgin. Then, in July 1909, came the Tragic Week, when riots swept the city and dozens of churches and convents were set on fire. Milà, nervous, refused the religious statue. Gaudí withdrew from the project before it was finished, and he later fell out with the owners over his fees, a dispute that ended up in court. When he won, the story goes, he gave the money away.
La Pedrera was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1984, and it is the last great house Gaudí built before devoting himself to the Sagrada Família. Now carry on up the avenue almost to the Diagonal, and look across to the left-hand side, where a pale palace sits calmly behind its railings.