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maintains.There are several entrances – at Pg. de Gràcia 96, c/Provença 273 and
c/Pau Claris 175 – and apart from checking out the extraordinary furniture
floor, which gives access to a terrace with views of the interior of La Pedrera,
you should try and make time for
La Sala Vinçon
(open same hours as the
store).This is Vinçon’s exhibition hall and art gallery, located in Casas’ original
studio, and it puts on excellent shows of graphic and industrial design and
contemporary furniture.
Along Avinguda Diagonal
At the top of Passeig de Gràcia you’ll find the
Palau Robert
, Pg. de Gràcia
107 (Mon–Sat 10am–7pm, Sun 10am–2.30pm;
T
932 388 091,
W
www.gencat
.cat/palaurobert; free;
o
Diagonal), the information centre for the region of
Catalunya, which hosts changing exhibitions on all matters Catalan, from art to
business; the pretty gardens around the back are a popular meeting point for the
local nannies and their charges.
Across the Diagonal from here stands
Casa Comalat
(1909),Avgda. Diagonal
442, at the junction with c/de Corsega, a tricky corner plot, handled with
aplomb by the architect SalvadorValeri i Pupurull, who gave it two very different
modernista
facades. On the other side of the avenue, at no. 373, the almost Gothic
Palau Quadras (a Josep Puig i Cadafalch work from 1904) has a new lease of life
as
Casa Àsia
(Tues–Sat 10am–8pm, Sun 10am–2pm; free;
T
932 837 337,
W
www.casaasia.es), a cultural and arts centre for Asia and the Pacific Region.You
can check the website for current exhibitions, but it’s always worth calling in
anyway as there’s a good café on the ground floor and, best of all, the Jardi
d’Orient roof terrace.Take the elevator up, and you’ll get views of the Sagrada
Família towers rising behind Puig i Cadafalch’s largest work, the soaring Casa
Terrades, a little further down Diagonal, on the left at nos. 416–420.This is more
usually known as the
Casa de les Punxes
(House of Spikes) because of its red-
tiled turrets and steep gables. Built in 1903 for three sisters, and converted from
three separate houses spreading around an entire corner of a block, the crenel-
lated structure is almost northern European in style.
Keep to the avenue and you’ll pass a sculpture of the
Ictineo
(Diagonal at c/de
Provença), the world’s earliest powered submarine, courtesy of the Catalans (see
p.89), before turning up Passeig de Sant Joan to see Puig i Cadafalch’s palatial
Casa Macaya
(
o
Verdaguer).Dating from 1898–1900, it’s a superbly ornamental
building with a Gothic-inspired courtyard and canopied staircase from which
griffins spring.You might be able to poke your head inside for a look, since the
house has been used in the past as a gallery run by the Fundació La Caixa, but
even from the outside it’s worth pausing to view the unusual exterior carvings
by craftsman Eusebi Arnau – like the angel with a “box” Brownie camera or the
sculptor himself on his way to work by bike.You’re only four blocks west of the
Sagrada Familía at this point, but you might as well stay with the Diagonal until
you reach Josep Maria Jujol i Gilbert’s
Casa Planells
at Avgda. Diagonal 332.
Jujol was one of Gaudí’s early collaborators, responsible for La Pedrera’s
undulating balconies and much of the mosaic work in the Parc Güell. Built in
1923–24, this apartment block – a sinuous solution to an acute-corner building
– simplifies many of the themes that Gaudí exaggerated in his own work.
Palau Montaner
A couple of blocks south of the Diagonal, the
Palau Montaner,
c/de
Mallorca 278, was built in 1896 for a member of the Montaner i Simon
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