Gaudí and his Masterpieces Free Tour

The Eixample is the neighbourhood where Barcelona decided to think big. In the late 19th century, when the city tore down its walls and spread out over a grid designed by Ildefons Cerdà, the Catalan bourgeoisie, grown rich on industry, went looking for architects who could turn their houses into genuine manifestos. That is where Catalan Modernisme came from, and its star avenue, the Passeig de Gràcia, filled up with façades that seem to defy the straight line. On this free walking tour you stroll along that showcase and learn how to read it: why an entire city dared to build in curves and who was the man who took that idea further than anyone, Antoni Gaudí.

It works well if you are travelling independently and want to understand what you are seeing instead of just photographing it. It is a good plan for families, because the stories of dragons, bones and quarries hook the kids too, and for anyone drawn to history and architecture. You do not need to know anything beforehand: your guide gives you the context, the period and the anecdotes so that every building makes sense.

Along the way you see from the outside the Casa Batlló, with its balconies that recall skulls and its roof of scales; the Casa Amatller right next door, home of the chocolatier Amatller and topped with a stepped, Flemish-looking gable, on the famous Manzana de la Discordia where the great architects competed wall to wall; La Pedrera (Casa Milà), all rippling, without a single straight line on its stone façade; and you finish by looking at the Sagrada Família from the outside, the work Gaudí never saw completed and that keeps growing more than a century later.

It is a free walking tour, so you book for free and pay nothing in advance. At the end, each person gives a voluntary contribution based on how much they enjoyed the walk; in Barcelona the usual amount is around 15 to 20 euros per person. That way you decide at the end, with the walk already done and no surprises.

This is one of the routes in the Trip Tours network in Barcelona and it pairs well with the others: you can spend this morning or afternoon on Gaudí and Modernisme, and another on the old town or the rest of the city to round off your visit.