Located on the corner of Passieg de Gracia and Carrer de Provenca in the L'Eixample area of Barcelona, La Pedrera is an example of Gaudi's architectural skills at their best.

Built between 1905 and 1910, La Pedrera was originally known as Casa Milà, after the businessman who funded its construction, but was given its new moniker due to the the exterior walls, which were designed to look like a petrified wave of stone, uncanny resemblence to a freshly quarried rock face. The windows and doors of this building look as if they have been hacked out of this solid cliff face. Each of these portals is trimmed with very organic looking wrought iron work.

The building is currently occupied by the Fundacio Caixa Cataluyna bank, but they do allow visitors to wander around selected areas, which is built around two oddly shaped patios. Rising to the first floor of the office block is a spiral staircase up to the rippling roof of the building, which is flat in parts, and is used as a viewing deck primarily for the oddly shaped chimneys, said to resemble mounted knights wearing visored helmets.

The building was recently cleaned and 'touched up' by the Spanish architect Josep Emili Hernández Cros, and is well worth popping to see if you find yourself in Barcelona with an hour to spare, as, as with all Gaudi it is truly wonderful, if bizarre.

La Pedrera was classified as World Heritage site in 1984 by UNESCO.