Casa Vicens

Casa Vicens is the first major building Gaudí ever designed, and it's the missing piece in any Gaudí itinerary that stops at the famous later works. He was 31 when he took the commission in 1883 — the same year he took over Sagrada Família — and he had almost no professional experience. The result is a building that's recognizably Gaudí but in a completely different vocabulary: Moorish-Mudéjar instead of organic Modernisme, with checkerboard tiles, intricate ironwork shaped like palm fronds, and a smoking room with a Persian-inspired papier-mâché ceiling.

It was built as a summer home for Manuel Vicens, a stockbroker and ceramic tile merchant — which explains the heavy use of tilework throughout the facade. The original gardens included a waterfall and fountain (long since lost to encroaching apartment blocks; the back garden you see now is a reconstructed sliver of the original).

The house remained in private hands until 2014, which is why most Barcelona visitors have never heard of it. A bank bought it, restored it carefully over three years, and opened it to the public in 2017 as a museum of itself. UNESCO added it to the Gaudí World Heritage listing in 2005, before it was even visitable.

It's in Gràcia — easy walk from Park Güell if you're working your way down the hill, or a short metro ride from the centre to Fontana. The visit takes an hour and tickets are easy to get day-of (it's never crowded), which is a relief if you're Gaudí'd-out from queueing at the big sites.