A walk west along the Diagonal and Carrer de Mallorca past Modernista buildings most visitors skip: Jujol's Casa Planells, four Puig i Cadafalch buildings, two Domenech i Montaner commissions and Salvador Valeri's Gaudi-influenced Casa Comalat, ending at the Diputacio on Rambla de Catalunya.
Best time: Weekday morning or late afternoon, when the facades are in side light; all stops are seen from the street
The route, stop by stop
- 1Casa Planells
Avinguda Diagonal 332 at Carrer de Sicilia: an apartment block by Josep Maria Jujol, Gaudi's collaborator, built in 1924. 5 min.
- 2Palau Macaya
Passeig de Sant Joan 108: Puig i Cadafalch, 1898-1901, declared a national monument in 1976; since 2012 the CaixaForum Macaya cultural centre. 10 min.
- 3Palau Montaner
Carrer de Mallorca 278 at Roger de Lluria: architects Lluis Domenech i Montaner and Josep Domenech i Estapa (1889). Unusually for a mansion, its garden is at the side, with the facade on the pavement line. 5 min.
- 4Casa Thomas
Carrer de Mallorca 291-293, opposite: Domenech i Montaner's 1895 design, enlarged in 1912 by his son-in-law Francesc Guardia i Vial; look up at the two corner towers that break the symmetry. 5 min.
- 5Casa de les Punxes (Casa Terradas)
Diagonal 416-420: Puig i Cadafalch's 1903-1905 'house of spikes', three houses for three Terradas sisters in a medieval, northern-Gothic manner. The museum inside closed in 2020; view from the street. 10 min.
- 6Palau del Baro de Quadras
Diagonal 373: another Puig i Cadafalch facade reinterpreting northern European Gothic; home of the Institut Ramon Llull since 2016. 5 min.
- 7Casa Comalat
Diagonal 442, running through to Carrer de Corsega 316: Salvador Valeri i Pupurull's most important work, with soft, cartilage-like forms inspired by Gaudi and Rococo decoration. Walk round to the Corsega side too. 10 min.
- 8Casa Serra
Rambla de Catalunya 126: Puig i Cadafalch, 1903; part of the Diputacio de Barcelona headquarters since 1987. In July 1936 it briefly served as a blood hospital. 10 min.
More walks in Barcelona
- Gothic Quarter and El Born: Roman walls to Santa Maria del Mar
- Modernisme mile: Passeig de Gracia to Sant Pau
- Montjuic: museums, gardens and a sea-view castle
- Food grazing: Sant Antoni market to Carrer de Blai
- Gracia squares to the Bunkers del Carmel
- Barceloneta bites: cava, bombas and the sea
- Old Gracia: village squares from Rovira i Trias to Casa Vicens
- Poblenou: textile mills of Pere IV to the Rambla and the old cemetery
- Sant Andreu de Palomar: old village core, mills and the Casa Bloc