Antoni Gaudí’s Casa Batlló is reaping the rewards from its continual reinvention

Crowds gather daily to marvel at the otherworldly facade of Antoni Gaudí’s Casa Batlló, whose bone-like balusters and scaled roof are said to depict Saint George slaying the dragon. Completed in 1906, it is today one of Barcelona’s most visited monuments.

Casa Batlló changed hands multiple times over the decades and served as both commercial and residential space. The Bernat family acquired it in 1993 and opened it to the public in 2002 after extensive renovations. It was designated a Unesco World Heritage site in 2005.

The family continued work on the house; over the past decade, it has undergone several more ambitious multi-million-euro restorations and a hi-tech revamp. Casa Batlló is now a profitable venture; visitor numbers doubled to more than 1.5 million in 2023 from 796,000 in 2013. Income hit a new record of €56m in 2023—a 54% increase from the previous year.

Restoring it is challenging, says Gary Gautier, the general director and a member of the Bernat family. Decades of use and a dearth of documentation relating to Gaudí’s original vision make distinguishing between authentic elements and later additions difficult. “I could tell you right now that the house is fully restored, and then suddenly discover something we thought was original isn’t,” Gautier says. The latest big project, an investment of €30m between 2018 and 2024, uncovered a gold-leaf pattern on the walls of the second floor mimicking Gaudí’s broken-tile mosaics, as well as the black of the rear façade.

Work continues on the third floor, where the last tenant moved out in 2019. Gautier calls it the most authentic, as its residents left its structure and finishes untouched. By late 2025, these rooms will open for use as rental spaces for private events or short-term stays. Gautier says it is not possible to open them to the general public because they are too small to accommodate a daily flow of as many as 9,000 visitors.

The crowds are also a conservation challenge: the entrance is 120cm wide, some corridors measure just 90cm across and the original elevator accommodates no more than five people. Bottlenecks are inevitable, even without the original furniture, which is mostly housed in other museums. The problem extends beyond the walls of Casa Batlló; as a Unesco World Heritage site, its surroundings are subject to security and conservation regulations.

‘Protective bubble’

“The idea is to create a protective bubble around the heritage site,” says Amílcar Vargas, Casa Batlló’s World Heritage manager. That task is complex, given the urban pressure on Passeig de Gràcia, one of Europe’s busiest shopping streets, and the need for co-ordination with law enforcement, local and regional governments, and other Gaudí landmarks sharing World Heritage status.

A series of vandalism incidents in 2020 prompted Unesco to warn the Catalan government about the safety of Gaudí’s works but plans to reinforce protection were delayed by the pandemic and a government transition. By 2023, it became clear a proactive approach was needed, Vargas explains. “We have commissioned a study in the first half of this year to provide additional data for modifying signage patterns and urban furniture.”

The 2018-24 revamp also expanded the visitor tour into the basement, adding 2,000 sq. m of immersive exhibitions like Gaudí Dôme, focused on the architect’s childhood and connection to nature, and Gaudí Cube, a 360º audio-visual room currently featuring Refik Anadol’s Gaudí Dreams. “The Casa is a beautiful and outstanding monument, but it’s static,” Gautier says. He argues that constant reinvention is essential to maintain its privileged place in Barcelona’s saturated tourist landscape.

Gautier, whose background includes consulting and a spell studying in Silicon Valley, has led Casa Batlló’s digital transformation since joining in 2011. The house claims to have been the first to introduce tablet-based augmented reality—in 2012, several years ahead of the Louvre. In 2022, it became the first Unesco World Heritage Site to be represented as a dynamic NFT (non-fungible token), designed by Anadol, which later sold at Christie’s for $1.38m.

The annual projection of digital works of art on its façade have also become a popular event in Barcelona; in February, the artist Quayola’s digital ode to nature, Arborescent, drew 110,000 spectators in two days. The next frontier, Gautier says, is an artificial intelligence-powered audio guide that adapts to visitors’ biometric indicators and emotions.

“I guess I’ve always wanted to be the most innovative, and to be the first,” Gautier says.