La Pedrera

Pere Milà, a businessman and politician, and his wife Roser Segimon commissioned the building in 1906: flats to rent, with their own home on the main floor. It was the last private house Gaudí designed. He fell out with the Milàs over his fees and over the large statue of the Virgin he planned for the top. After the anticlerical riots of 1909, known as the Tragic Week, the family dropped the statue, and Gaudí stepped away before the work was finished.

The engineering was well ahead of its time. Pillars and iron beams carry the weight, so no inside wall holds anything up and each flat could be laid out differently. The rippling front is limestone, and the balconies are tangles of wrought iron that look like seaweed.

Roser Segimon lived there until 1964. By then the building had been split into offices and flats, and even the attic had been turned into apartments. The savings bank Caixa Catalunya bought it in 1986 and restored it, and today it is run by the Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera. UNESCO listed it in 1984.

From the pavement, a guide can show you much of what made La Pedrera famous: the front that rolls round the corner of Carrer de Provença, the iron balconies, and the entrance gates made of irregular glass set in iron. Stand on the far side of Passeig de Gràcia and a few of the rooftop chimneys peek over the top.

Going inside takes a separate ticket from La Pedrera itself and about 90 minutes over five floors. You come in through one of the two courtyards, their walls painted with faded murals, and a lift takes you up to the roof first. Up there, 28 chimneys and stair towers stand like helmeted guards, and the path climbs and dips between them with the city all around. Below the roof is the attic, a long tunnel of 270 brick arches that now holds an exhibition on how Gaudí worked. The last stop is a flat furnished the way a well-off family lived in it around 1911.

The rooftop is uneven, with steps throughout, so it is not suitable for wheelchairs. The rest of the visit has lift access.

In 2026 La Pedrera opens daily from 9:00 to 8:30 pm between March and early November, and until 6:30 pm in winter, with a handful of closure days. Most people come for the rooftop, and it shuts when it rains, so pick a dry day if your plans allow.

Late afternoon is good value. The official Sunset ticket covers the same route as the daytime one for less money, and the low sun warms up the pale stone. For a near-empty roof, a guided Sunrise visit starts at 8:00, an hour before opening.

After dark there is the Night Experience: a guided tour that ends on the roof with a light-and-sound show projected onto the chimneys and a glass of cava. It often sells out, so book it a few days ahead. A walking tour that only stops outside works at any hour.