Short answer. Start outside, on Passeig de Gràcia, and look at the facade for a few minutes before you go in. Inside, the best order is the main floor, the light well with its blue tiles, the staircase and the attic. If your ticket includes the roof, finish on the dragon’s back. The visit takes about an hour and a quarter.
Blue, Silver, Gold and Platinum tickets
Casa Batlló: Blue Entrance Ticket
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Book tickets and visits →Why start with the facade?
Because it is free, and because it explains the rest. The wall is covered in pieces of glass and ceramic in blue, green and ochre, and in the morning sun the colours shine. Gaudí used recycled materials here, which is part of the effect.
Look at the lower floors. The slim stone columns look like bones, and the iron balconies look like masks. Above them, a large gallery looks out over the street, made for seeing and being seen. That is how the building earned its nicknames, the House of Bones and the House of the Dragon.
What is on the main floor?
The main floor is the heart of the house, and it is where you will stop first. A large window opens onto Passeig de Gràcia like a seat at the theatre. The doors are oak, with coloured glass, and the plaster ceiling swirls in waves. Nothing here is a straight line, and that is exactly the point.
What makes the light well special?
At the centre of the house, a tall light well brings daylight down to every floor. Its walls are covered in tiles in different shades of blue. They are darker at the top and paler at the bottom, so the light spreads evenly from the roof to the lowest floor. The windows get larger as you go down, and wooden slats let the air through.
It is easy to walk through quickly, but it is worth standing still for a minute and looking up.
What about the staircase?
The wooden staircase winds through the atrium, and its handrail curves like the spine of a large animal. It is one of those details you notice when you touch it. In 2023, restorers found gold leaf on the staircase and the decoration of the atrium.
What is in the attic?
The attic was a service area for the tenants, with laundry and storage rooms. Today it is a row of sixty white arches that looks like the ribs of an animal, in a whitewashed Mediterranean style. After the colours downstairs, the white feels like a pause.
What is the dragon’s back?
The roof terrace is the part most people remember. The roof rises in large scales like the back of an animal, and four groups of colourful chimneys stand along it. A tower with a four-armed cross points to the sky.
Many people read the roof as a legend in stone: Saint George and the dragon, with the roof as the dragon’s back, the cross as the hilt of the sword, and the bone-shaped columns below as the dragon’s victims. It is one reading among others, but it is easy to see why it stuck.
The roof terrace is included from the Silver ticket. Blue does not include it.
What about the private rooms of the Batlló family?
Gold and Platinum open the original concierge room and the private residence of the Batlló family: their private lobby, their dining room and the office of Mr Batlló. These rooms make the house feel less like a museum and more like a home.
What is the Gaudí Cube?
It is a 360-degree room with images that surround you. It comes with every level of ticket, so you will see it whichever one you choose.
Which one for you?
Short on time? Blue shows you the facade, the main floor, the light well and the attic. Want the dragon’s back? Choose Silver. Want the family rooms too? Choose Gold. To choose with confidence, read the ticket guide, then check the hours and how to get there and the history of the house.