Carrer de les Carolines, 20-26
Houses and emblematic buildings
Casa Vicens is an eclectic, orientalist style house, Gaudí’s first work and an early step in the development of Catalan Modernisme. Located in Gràcia, it brings together Arab, Mudéjar and oriental influences, with glazed ceramics, exposed brick and sculpted carnations. Its straight lines, unusual within Gaudí’s later work, create a sense of freshness and restraint rather than ornament. There is no grandiosity here, only intuition. Moving through the rooms, you can trace the emergence of a distinctive architectural language: youthful, bold and with a restrained sense of beauty.