Casa Batlló restores original designs for rear facade and private courtyard

The restoration of Casa Batlló's rear facade and private courtyard brought back Antoni Gaudí's original designs from 1906.

The building located at the Passeig de Gràcia boulevard, in the city center of Barcelona, saw a €3.5 million investment. The project involved a large team of local restoration experts and craftsmen to recover the original look and design of all the materials on the facade.

The restoration revealed the original colors and materials of the wood, ironwork, and stucco on the facade, and it also brought back missing elements in the courtyard, like the pergola and some planters.

"It was a very different image from what you were looking at today," Xavier Villanueva, the Casa Batlló architect, said to Catalan News during an interview on Thursday at the building's patio. 

The facade that had always been cream is now black and the iron rails, once dark, are now white with a lot of flowers and colors not seen before. 

Historic photos from 1906 were misleading, showing the facade as very light in color, leading one to think cream was the original finish. 

The balconies are designed to include white flower shapes resembling a climbing plant that stops at the first level, connecting to the terrace that was once part of a wealthy family's private garden. 

In addition, there are two vertical floral elements, stretching around 20 meters framing the building and symbolizing climbing plants. 

The pergola in the courtyard, which once disappeared in the 1930s, has now been rebuilt piece by piece to match the original design. It is surrounded by jasmine plants and white flowers to match those seen in the balcony design. 

The restoration began five years ago with an extended research from archives and works in the laboratory. 

"We have been working for the last years," Villanueva said. The team carried out extensive testing across different parts of the site, examining materials such as stucco, wood, iron, plants, and fragments from the terrace. 

The three facades and stairways took between 12 and 14 months of work. The finishing touches including the flowers, pots, and pergolas were completed in the last weeks.

"This facade, for me, is the skin of the building," Villanueva said, "It begins as a flower and finally finishes like a garden, its storytelling that we like very much."

Modernisme and Barcelona symbol

Casa Batlló is one of the many works from Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage since 2005, and considered one of the most unique pieces of the Art Nouveau modernisme architecture style. It is also considered a symbol of Barcelona.

Since 2019, the building managers have invested over €25 million to refurbish and protect the site, and in 2024, it registered over €65 million in revenue and €34 million profit.

There were 1,908,070 visitors during 2024, a 21% increase on 2023 figures.

Casa Batlló was mainly visited by Italians, representing 15% of the overall visitors, Spaniards (14.6%), US nationals (14.3%), French (8.3%), and Brits.

There has also been an exponential increase in Asian visitors, with 99% more Chinese travelers, 75% more South Korean, and 68% more Japanese.