Casa Batlló restoration reveals Gaudí's original colors

The restoration of Casa Batlló's rear façade and inner courtyard, completed on June 19, 2025, has uncovered the original colors Antoni Gaudí envisioned in 1906. The project, part of a five-year series of restorations marking the 20th anniversary of the building's UNESCO World Heritage inscription, involved a €3.5 million investment led by architect Xavier Villanueva and a team of local experts and artisans. Work on the rear façade included restoring stucco, trencadís glass and ceramic fragments, wrought-iron railings, wooden windows and doors, and mosaic balcony flooring, while reinforcing a severely deteriorated structure. In the private courtyard, lost elements such as planters and a parabolic heather pergola were recreated, and the floor was faithfully replicated using 85,000 Nolla mosaic tiles with original techniques. Villanueva described discovering the original colors as like seeing a photographic negative of Gaudí's design. Over the past decade, Casa Batlló has hosted contemporary art interventions, including a 2015 video mapping for its UNESCO anniversary, Kengo Kuma's metal installations for its 2021 reopening, and Refik Anadol's 2023 video mapping 'Living Architecture' for the Digital Impact exhibition and Passeig de Gràcia's 200th anniversary.