Passeig de Gràcia is the boulevard the Eixample's new money built to show off, and the architects obliged. This is a short, dense walk — under three kilometres — up Barcelona's showcase street, past the most concentrated stretch of modernisme anywhere.
Begin at the bottom of the Illa de la Discòrdia, the "block of discord," where three rival architects put their best work side by side. Domènech i Montaner's Casa Lleó Morera first, then Puig i Cadafalch's prim stepped gable at Casa Amatller, then Gaudí's Casa Batlló with its scaled roof and skull balconies. You don't have to pay your way into all three; the argument is on the outside.
Walk up the boulevard proper, past Falqués's iron-and-mosaic lampposts, to La Pedrera — Gaudí's stone wave, where the rooftop chimneys are worth the ticket and the balconies are free from the kerb. End at Diagonal, where the grid tilts and the metro takes you on.
