Casa Batlló

You are in the heart of one of Europe's most prestigious boulevards, standing before what locals call the House of the Dragon. Casa Batlló rises on Passeig de Gràcia, its façade shimmering with ceramic scales and balconies shaped like human skulls. In 1903, wealthy textile industrialist Josep Batlló purchased an ordinary apartment building here and commissioned Antoni Gaudí to make it extraordinary.

Gaudí did not tear it down. Instead, between 1904 and 1906, he transformed the existing structure into a living legend, reimagining it as the tale of Sant Jordi, Catalonia's patron saint who slayed a fearsome dragon to rescue a princess. The architecture tells this ancient story in stone and tile. The roof curves like the scaled back of a beast, pierced by a tower shaped like a cross representing Sant Jordi's victorious sword.

Those bone-like columns on the ground floor? They represent the remains of the dragon's victims. Step inside and the white catenary arches of the attic feel like standing within the ribcage of an enormous creature. Gaudí's masterpiece competed twice for Barcelona's prestigious architectural awards in 1906 and 1907 but lost both times. Critics called it strange. In 2005, UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site, welcoming over 1 million visitors annually who come to witness Gaudí's genius.