Sporting an iridescent scaled facade and curving, bony balconies, the building always manages to give off an otherworldly feel. Unfortunately, a visit to this Gaudí masterpiece can mean slapping down €29-€35 and getting jostled by passers-by while you inch toward the entrance. Meanwhile, you might wish you’d spared yourself the fuss, snapped a shot from across the street, and taken your euros elsewhere for tapas and beer.

Instead, you can make the most of your time and money when visiting this architectural jewel by following these easy tips for visiting Gaudi’s Casa Batlló:

Related Articles
• Tips for saving time and money at the Sagrada Familia
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1. Book your tickets online ahead of time

This can’t be stressed enough. If you don’t book your tickets online ahead of time, you’ll have to wait in not one, but two lines when you arrive, and during the busy summer months, there’s always a chance that you won’t be able to get a ticket for the same day. Plus, booking in advance can save up to €15 per ticket.

If you really hate to wait in line, you can pay about €5 extra to skip the line with a “FastPass” ticket. When you book your ticket online, book a time of the day that’s still marked green for high availability — that means fewer people have already bought tickets.

2. Be sure to buy the right ticket

Don’t pay more than you have to! There are discounts for kids between 12-17 years of age, students with an I.D., Barcelona city and province residents, adults over 65, and visitors with disabilities and their companions. Children under 12 years old are free. Teachers and tour guides accompanying a group also get in free.

3. Take advantage of any discounts available

Have you purchased other tickets or tourist cards? If so, you might be eligible for a discounted ticket. You’re in luck if you’ve purchased tickets for the Tourist Bus, Barcelona City Tours, the Modernism Route, the Barcelona Walking Tours, or bought the Barcelona Card or Pass.

4. Go first thing in the morning on a weekday

Trust us, you want to avoid the crowds. Arrive 10-15 minutes before Casa Batlló opens at 8:30 a.m. on a weekday, preferably between Monday and Thursday, when there are fewer Spanish and European tourists in the city. Weekdays in January and February are even better, as Barcelona has fewer visitors during these colder months.

Or, if you’re willing to pay extra, you can buy a “Morning Visit” pass for €45 to ensure that you beat the crowds.

5. Once inside, go straight to the roof

Most visitors gradually work their way up through the house, following the numbers on the audio guide. Get away from the crowds by taking the stairs straight to the top and spending some time alone on the building’s rooftop terrace, posing with its iconic chimneys.

6. Skip the gift shop

The museum’s store has lots of beautiful souvenirs, but they come at too steep a price in cash, not to mention the wait in line. Time is too precious waiting in line for postcards and magnets, even when they’re printed with designs from Barcelona’s most famous modernista master.

7. Go late for a “magical night”

While it may not save you cash on admission, you might end up ahead by going for an evening concert and tour of the museum. Called “Magical Nights”, you can roam the house without the crowds, then stick around for live music and a glass of cava on the rooftop terrace. You can reserve a tour plus the rooftop concert, or only the concert for a slightly lower entry price. (And if you’re willing to risk it, some concert attendees without the tour add-on have been permitted to roam the house some when they first arrived.)

8. Use the free Wi-Fi

Finally, and perhaps of least important, you can also take advantage of the museum’s free Wi-Fi. This will at least save you the hassle of searching for bar or café with free wireless after your tour…

Your tips for visiting Gaudi’s Casa Batlló?

Have some tips for visiting Gaudi’s Casa Batlló? Add them in our comments section below!

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The Mackintosh factor

Devotees of Charles Rennie Mackintosh should not however now delete Glasgow from their itineraries. The House for an Art Lover in the city’s Bellahouston Park is a fine piece of Mackintosh art nouveau style—even though construction of the building did not start until more than sixty years after the architect’s death.

It is also worth making an excursion out of Glasgow to visit the Hill House in Helensburgh. It is just 45 minutes from Glasgow by train (with departures twice hourly from the lower level of Glasgow Queen Street station). At the Hill House you’ll see one of Mackintosh’s finest designs. It was completed in 1904, and the real draw is that Mackintosh also handled the interior designs—some visitors find them excessively stylised, but we like the manner in which grace and severity stand in counterpoint to one another.

If you have more appetite for art nouveau design upon returning to the city from Helensburgh, the obvious next stop is the Willow Tea Rooms which nowadays trade at two addresses: 217 Sauchiehall Street and 97 Buchanan Street. Neither has the original Mackintosh furnishings, but there’s still heaps of design flair—and the classic high-backed art nouveau chairs are more comfy than they look.

Art nouveau around Europe

Fans of art nouveau style will find splendid examples of the genre in cities across Europe. There are those whimsical entrances to Parisian métro stations, a feast of facades in Brussels and a too-often-overlooked magnificent art nouveau entrance hall to the main railway station in Prague.

Ultimately, though, art nouveau was a provincial movement, one that found its fullest expression not in capital cities but in secondary cities. So in Germany, look to Darmstadt rather than Berlin. In France, Nancy cuts a dash in art nouveau design.

Other cities where art nouveau architecture makes a good showing are Barcelona, Subotica (mentioned in a previous EuroCheapo post), Liepaja in Latvia, Zakopane in Poland and even Ålesund in Norway. If that last one sounds a tad improbable, there is a simple explanation. The center of the Norwegian coastal town was destroyed in a fire in 1904. It was rebuilt immediately thereafter, and remains to this day a showpiece example of coherent urban design which is full of art nouveau accents.

Glasgow may be mourning, but Ålesund is a reminder that the fire card plays two ways. Were it not for that devastating fire in 1904, Ålesund would not today be a magnet for lovers of art nouveau.

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Weimar had an entire republic named after it. The fact that the Weimar Republic of the 1920s was ultimately unsuccessful—eventually eclipsed by the Nazis—might have been too heavy a burden for Weimar to bear. But Weimar has a knack of bouncing back.

Tourist assets

Few places the size of Weimar can boast such lavish assets as the town in Thuringia. Links with Lucas Cranach the Elder, Richard Wagner, Franz Liszt and Friedrich Nietzsche would have been enough to secure for Weimar a revered position in the tourist canon.

But Weimar can boast far more, for the entire Germanistik enterprise relies on two Weimar men: Goethe and Schiller. With such literary heavyweights in the Weimar team, it’s no surprise that the town cuts a dash on the tourist circuit. When Weimar secured coveted European Capital of Culture status in 1999, it was the smallest community ever to receive the accolade.

The Market Square in Weimar. Photo: © hidden europe

With a population of just 60,000 and a compact layout, Weimar is eminently walkable. The main railway station, just to the north of the town center, gives a hint of what’s to come. It is a striking neo-classical building. And Weimar mainstreams on classical allusion. There is even a mock Roman villa in the city’s Ilm Park.

The Goethe brand

Schiller and Goethe are compulsory. There is no getting away from them. There is hardly a hotel in town that does not have a Goethe function room or Schiller suite. In the cafés, there are Schiller schnaps and Goethe teas. During a few days in Weimar last month, we discovered Goethe pralines and Schiller pancakes.

But even if you cannot abide Goethe and know no odes of Schiller, there are still many good reasons to go to Weimar. For travelers making a wider tour of Europe, Weimar is the ideal small-town stopover.

Perfectly positioned on the routes from Paris to Prague, from Munich to Berlin, it’s hard to miss Weimar. It is right by the E40—one of Europe’s main east-west road routes. It has direct trains from Düsseldorf, Dresden, Berlin, Hamburg and even from Zürich. The nearby airport (called Erfurt-Weimar) has direct flights from London Gatwick with Germania.

The Russian Cemetery in Weimar’s Ilm Park. Photo: © hidden europe

Exploring the Ilm Park

The narrative peddled by most guidebooks (and indeed the local tourist authorities) mainstreams on high culture. So expect an overdose of dead poets, painters and philosophers.

The real trump card is however something much less sophisticated: it is Weimar’s small-town charm. The River Ilm, skirting the east side of the city center, gives texture to the townscape. Wander through the park along the Ilm Valley to get a feel for Weimar. It’s not compulsory to visit Goethe’s gartenhaus in the park—a building that is much too lavishly proportioned to be a mere garden house. But don’t miss the Russian cemetery in Ilm Park. It is a quiet retreat of poignant beauty, one that hardly gets a mention in the tourist guides.

Bauhaus connections

At one edge of the Ilm Park is the sole surviving piece of real Bauhaus architecture in Weimar—the Haus am Horn. It’s a reminder that classical Weimar has not always been sympathetic to the avant-garde. The Bauhaus movement was founded in Weimar in 1919, but was nudged out of town six years later.

Staying in Weimar

The people of Weimar have endured a takeover from investors from the west. The city’s premier hotel is the Elephant. It’s worth a look for the building is a fine piece of Nazi architecture (dating from 1938)—neo-classicism morphing into art deco. But, as too often with smart hotels, it is owned and managed by a big corporation that has few local connections.

If you want to support a local Weimar venture, head round the corner from the Elephant to the Hotel-Pension am Goethehaus (ah, yes, Goethe again) where Hendrik Rauch has restored a stylish old building to create a comfortable mid-range hotel which opened in 2012. It’s been a labor of love, but the result is a homely hotel, oozing minimalist chic at very fair prices. Room rates are from €55 including breakfast.

Relax at the Resi

As a town that pulls so many visitors, Weimar is full of cafés. Head away from the main market square for the best deals. Our favorite is the Residenz-Café on Grüner Markt. To the locals it’s just ‘the Resi’—and it’s a real Weimar institution, open daily from 8 in the morning right through to late evening. Naturally it has a room dedicated to Goethe, but the Resi is the perfect place to relax and plot a Goethe-free itinerary through Weimar. For there really is another Weimar, a more radical city, waiting to be discovered.

Nicky and Susanne have explored other aspects of Weimar in two recent issues of Letter from Europe. The articles, both available online, are Reclaiming Weimar and Sounds of a City. The writers paid their own way, travelling by train to Weimar and staying at the Hotel-Pension am Goethehaus.

The post Unpacking Weimar: A small German city that leaves a big impression appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

From art nouveau to art deco

Swedish architect Alfred Grenander designed the showpiece entrance hall to Wittenbergplatz U-Bahn station (routes U1, U2 and U15). It is a wonderful piece of art nouveau design, far too good to merely dash through. One can trace how Grenander’s work as an architect developed over the years by visiting his various stations around Berlin.

Krumme Lanke (U1), built 17 years after Wittenbergplatz, is a good example of Grenander’s later work: a superb essay in art deco and one that with its curved lines and “bridge-of-a-ship” look includes early elements of streamline moderne. (Londoners might note the similarity with some of Charles Holden’s designs for the Piccadilly Line. There’s surely a book just waiting to be written: From Krumme Lanke to Southgate).

A hint of the exotic

From Krumme Lanke it is just a 10-minute walk to the nearest S-Bahn station at Mexikoplatz (S1), which as fine an example of German Jugendstil as you’ll see anywhere in the German capital. On the S1, it is just a short ride (three stops) from Mexikoplatz to Lichterfelde West, which is another flight of fancy — the S-Bahn station is in the style of a Tuscan villa.

You’ll also find Italian accents at the Hackescher Markt S-Bahn station (S5, S7, S9, S75). It’s a much fussier design than Lichterfelde West, and in our view altogether more successful. It’s a neat piece of Italian Renaissance with Moorish overtones.

Spandau station

Architect Rainer Rümmler was responsible for the design of many West Berlin stations during the second half of the last century — a period when the U-Bahn network was progressively extended. One of our favourites is Rathaus Spandau at the western extremity of the U7. It was Rümmler’s local station as it happens for he lived in Spandau. The underground platforms are a great spot to sit and relax for an hour — the space has the feel of a monumental crypt with its polished stonework, restrained use of colour and striking lighting.

Beyond Berlin

Station hopping in search of architecture and design is of course a sport not reserved only unto Berlin. We are surely not the only visitors who have ridden the Prague metro out to Rajská zahrada merely to view the railway station. This blue-themed glass structure is a striking piece of postmodern design.

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Bauhaus thinking so powerfully influenced architecture around the world in the last century that we often forget its German roots. The Bauhaus school existed in Germany for just 14 years (from 1919 to 1933); it was based initially in Weimar and then moved in 1925 to Dessau. And it is in the latter city that students of architecture and design will still find a powerful Bauhaus imprint today.

The main Bauhaus building is an icon.

Bauhaus style in Dessau

The original college building, itself called the Bauhaus, is an icon. The pleasure is in the detail. Visitors can see the very rooms where the masters taught, sit in Kandinsky’s studio and wander through the houses where Paul Klee once lived. Klee and Kandinsky resided in the Meisterhäuser (Masters’ Houses), a group of classic Bauhaus villas that Gropius designed for some of the college’s key staff.

The Kornhaus Restaurant

And there is special reason to head for Dessau this fall or winter. One of the most striking of all Bauhaus buildings is the Kornhaus Restaurant on the bank of the River Elbe. After some years of neglect, it has just this month reopened. It was here, on summer evenings, where the master teachers of the Bauhaus would gather to discuss art, politics and life. But the Kornhaus is a special spot at any time of the year. It is open daily from 11 a.m.

The showpiece Bauhaus main building is open daily. The building itself is the main draw but it houses a good exhibition on modernism (open 10 a.m – 5 p.m., admission €6). The Meisterhäuser are closed Mondays, but open on other days from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Admission is presently €7.50, but there is talk of lower charges from January 2013.

How to get to Dessau

Dessau makes an easy day trip from Berlin. At the moment, direct trains leave about ten times each day from Berlin Wannsee. But the services get a big boost from December 9 with a new direct hourly train from Berlin Hauptbahnhof to Dessau. That hourly frequency applies Monday through Saturdays. On Sundays the new service will run every two hours. Travel time from Berlin to Dessau will be 90 minutes.

The post Bauhaus Aesthetics: Modernism in Dessau, Germany appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Casa Batlló & La Pedrera: Astoria Hotel
Doubles from €70

This is also one of the best value hotels we’ve seen in the Eixample neighborhood in up-town Barcelona. Astoria Hotel is located close to Casa Batlló and La Pedrera which are both located on Pssg. de Gràcia.

My favorite Gaudí structure  is Casa Batlló, a cobalt and kelp-green apartment building that shimmers in the sun for tourists. Gaudí did not fully design these luxury apartments, but revamped the building between 1904 and 1906 for Josep Batlló i Casanovas. Not far from Casa Batlló is La Pedrera, which was was built between 1906 and 1912 as a high-end apartment building. Declared a Wold Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1984, it’s possible to visit the Espai Gaudí, El Terrat and El Pis de La Pedrera plus an art museum (free) with rotating exhibitions inside this impressive building.

A room at the Gat Xino puts you close to the Palau Guell.

Palau Güell: Gat Xino
Doubles from €65

Staying at Gat Xino will put you close to a lesser-known Gaudí palace, Palau Güell. Built between 1886-1888, this was the Güell family palace.

Wealthy Mr. Güell was one of Gaudí’s main supporters and because of him we also have Park Güell, which makes for an impressive visit on a clear, sunny day. Palau Güell was closed for restoration for a few years but is now open for visits.

La Sagrada Família: Hostal Central Barcelona

Finally, my pick for glimpsing Gaudí’s most famous, unfinished building is Hostal Central Barcelona, located a few blocks from the “sandcastle” Basilica. (Here’s a list of other affordable hotels near La Sagrada Familia.)

If you see no other Gaudí sight, see this one. Gaudí took on La Sagrada Familia project in 1883 and died before it was completed. Construction continues now, and in the last seven years I’ve seen it morph considerably.

Mass is held at La Sagrada Família and if you’re religious this could be quite a unique experience, plus you’ll not have to pay an entrance fee if you’re going to a service.

To read more hotel reviews, visit our guide to cheap hotels in Barcelona.

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This post presents a handful of the city’s great structures categorized according to style; a kind of architecture tour of Prague, if you will. And remember, it doesn’t cost anything to gaze at some of the finest examples of architecture in the world.

Gothic

Charles Bridge
Stare Mesto and Mala Strana

Construction of this epic bridge began in 1337 and was completed in the 15th century. The most distinguishing features of this stone bridge are its Baroque sculptures and statues that were added to the sides of it in the 1700’s. (Today’s are just replicas of the originals, which are housed inside the National Museum.)

Three towers are found at the entrances to the bridge, one on the side headed to Old Town and two on the Mala Strana side. The latter is considered one of Europe’s finest examples of civil Gothic architecture. As one of Prague’s most visited sites, it’s advised to visit at the crack of dawn or late night (which actually turn out to be the hours which suit this wonder best).

Others Gothic structures: The House of the Stone Bell, St. Vitus Cathedral, The Convent of St. Agnes

Renaissance

Ball Game Hall
Hradcany

Ball Game Hall. Photo: Carolyn Will

Located within the Royal Garden of the castle, this sgraffito-adorned building was first built in the 16th century to serve as the Royal Game Hall for an early form of tennis and badminton. After transforming into the Royal Stables in the 17th century and then a military barrack and storeroom, the building was struck by a bomb during World War II and burned down to its outer wall.

Its restoration was completed in 1952, but the Royal Garden wasn’t opened again until after 1989. But the communists left their mark. On the front of the building, facing the garden, look out for their own sgraffito: the number five (for the “Five Year Plan”) and a hammer and sickle.

Other Renaissance examples: The Royal Summer Palace, Star Summer Palace, The House at the Minute

Baroque

Strahov Monastery
Strahovské nádvorí 132/1
Hradcany

Dating back to the 12th century, Strahov is Prague’s second oldest monastery (and it remains functioning today). Comprised of several buildings, its baroque library—including both the Theological Hall and the Philosophical Hall—are not to be missed. As it is perched atop a hill, its location offers some wonderful views of the city.

Other Baroque examples: St. Nicholas Cathedral, Troja Chateau, The Sternberg Palace.

Art Noveau

The Municipal House
Námestí Republiky 1090/5
Stare Mesto

Including gilded decorations, ceramics, stained glass windows, and murals, the Municipal House’s details, in combination with its impressive size, make it perhaps Prague’s most shining example of the style. Completed in 1911, its remarkable outcome is the work of prominent Czech sculptors and painters, including Alfons Mucha.

Saloun’s Villa
Slovenská 4/2499,
Vinohrady

A more off-the-beaten-path example, but definitely worth the journey, this great little structure is the former studio of Czech sculptor Ladislav Saloun, a leading figure of Czech Art Noveau symbolism. Designated as a protected cultural monument in 1958, today it serves as a teaching space for guest professors of the Academy of Fine Arts. You’ll find it in Prague’s Vinohrady neighborhood, to the side of a long set of stairs that run beside a park. Look out for the sculpted head above the doorway.

Cubism

House of the Black Madonna
Celetná 569/34
Stare Mesto

Cubism is special to the Czech Republic, as it is the only country where you will find Cubist architecture. One of the most renowned examples, the House of the Black Madonna was completed between 1911-1912 by architect Josef Gocar–one of the members of a famous group of Czech artists and architects who worked in the style. Appropriately, the house is home to the Museum of Czech Cubism and the Grand Café Orient, which boasts a cubist interior.

Kovarovic Villa
Libušina 3
Vyšehrad

Inspired by the works of Braque and Picasso, this exceptional villa is a must see. Not only is the house done in the cubist style, but also the garden layout, the surrounding metal fence and even the stairs.

Cubist Lamppost
Jungmannovo Namesti

It’s the only cubist lamppost in the world. Enough said.

Functionalism

Manes
Masarykovo nábreží 250/1
Stare Mesto

Opened in 1930, the Manes building is considered one of Europe’s top Functionalist buildings. Comprised of three floors, with the river running underneath it, Manes’ function since it was formed has been to serve as a visual arts exhibition hall.

Muller Villa
Nad hradním vodojemem 642/14
Strešovice

One of the most influential architects of Modern European architecture, Adolf Loos built this cubed-shaped home for the family after which it was named. Done in a design called “Raumplan,” the interior was conceived as spaces–as opposed to rooms, sections or floor plans–that flow into one another via multi-levels, according to function.

Communist Era

Panelaks

From Prague’s highest points you can’t not see these structures. Situated on the outskirts of the city, these tall, gray boxes, sitting side by side, were actually inspired by Le Corbusier’s idea of people living in small, efficient cities. However, the outcome was blank buildings that feel completely devoid of inspiration. Due to the more affordable costs, this is where a large percentage of Praguers live today.

Other Communist examples: Kotva department store, The Zizkov Television Tower (as this is the highest structure in Prague, you can’t miss it on the skyline. It was started by the communists and is today characterized by large sculpted children climbing up its sides, made by controversial Czech artist David Cerny).

Post 1989

The Dancing House
Rašínovo nábreží 1981/80
Nove Mesto

Not much has been done in the way of interesting modern architecture in Prague at this point. The Dancing Building however is the one exception. Built by Frank Gehry and Vlado Milunic between 1992 and 1996, the structure rests on a formerly vacant riverfront plot where the building before had been destroyed by a bomb at the end of WWII. It’s sometimes referred to as the “Fred and Ginger Building,” as it was made to resemble two dancers.

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Visiting the Iza Valley

The Iza Valley is very special. Wood reigns supreme. Villages such as Bogdan Voda and Ieud are richly textured places that take their rhythm from the surrounding forests. There are wooden houses and wooden gateways, the latter often embellished with a wooden cross.

Wooden barns cluster in complex geometries which have as their pivot a wooden church. It is but a short step from the simple Maramures homestead to heaven. The churches, some Uniate and some Orthodox, have an almost miraculous energy, and, so we were told, are among the tallest wooden structures in the world.

Reflections of Heaven

The cosmos finds expression in Iza Valley homesteads too, with delicate symmetrical carvings on barn doors, porches and gates. Perfectly regular wooden shingles line the roofs to create powerful silhouettes against the early autumn sky. In the courtyards, cords of oak are neatly stacked, while next to one abandoned house, the unburnt winter wood of yesteryear is home to a riot of late summer clematis. If rural perfection is ever to be found in Europe, it might be in the artistic delicacy of the wooden villages of the Iza Valley.

Getting there

This region of Romania lies just south of the border with Ukraine. A daily overnight train from Bucharest takes 12 hours to reach the Iza Valley, and in our book there’s no better way to start the morning than by pulling back the curtains of a sleeping car to reveal a dewy mist over the orchards of the Iza.

About the authors: Nicky and Susanne run a Berlin-based editorial bureau that supplies text and images to media across Europe. Together they edit hidden europe magazine and write often about rail travel across Europe. You can read more of their writing in their regular e-brief and in the Notes section on their website.

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Zoos are great spots for people watching and, for anyone with even only a passing interest in architecture, zoos often boast some of the finest buildings in a city. Few of Europe’s leading architects have not at one time or another turned their hand to zoo buildings.

To the Alpenzoo in Innsbruck

On the top of our list of zoos for fans of great contemporary architecture is Innsbruck in the Austrian Tyrol, where even the ride from town up to the zoo is an architectural feast. The Hungerburgbahn is a funicular railway from the middle of Innsbruck, Austria to the Alpenzoo. This mountain railway was rebuilt in 2007, and Anglo-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid was commissioned to design the stations along the route. Her designs are breathtaking.

Unpack your trunk in Copenhagen

One of our favorite modern zoo buildings is the elephant house at Copenhagen Zoo, designed by Foster and Partners. Norman Foster is more associated with glitzy showpiece efforts, but the understated earthiness of the new structure at Copenhagen Zoo is evidently elephant bliss. One of Foster’s colleagues is reported as saying that going back to designing buildings for grumpy humans will be no fun after working on the Copenhagen elephant house.

Penguin bliss in London

The London Zoo has a galaxy of architectural gems, the the most striking of which is the seductive Penguin pool designed by the Georgian-born architect Berthold Lubetkin in 1934.

Lubetkin and his progressive architectural alliance (known as Tecton) secured many commissions for zoo buildings across Britain, of which the finest collection is at the Dudley Zoo in the English Midlands (midway between the cities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton).

Dudley: The Lubetkin legacy

A little improbably, Dudley thus hosts the best collection of Constructivist buildings anywhere outside the former Soviet Union. The uncompromising modernity of the Dudley Zoo took visitor’s breath away when the zoo opened in 1937.

More than 70 years later, the buildings are showing signs of age, but they alone still justify a visit to the town, though curiously the Dudley Zoo Web site makes no significant mention of what many might judge to be the zoo’s greatest asset.

Lubetkin was a star architect of the 20th century. But is it not ironic that the greatest beneficiaries of an architect so committed to a vision of a better society were not humans at all, but rather apes and penguins?

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Barcelona’s Palau Nacional. Photo: Paula Funnell

Undaunted by the setback, Eiffel had better luck with Paris and, despite some opposition from local residents, the structure was constructed for the 1889 World Fair (Expo) – with the understanding that it would be dismantled thereafter. In the end it stayed, and few are the visitors to the Paris icon today who remember that the tower was initially designed to be merely a temporary addition to the Paris skyline.

World-class architecture in Barcelona

The general idea with Expos is that landmark buildings are constructed for the event, and then dismantled after the exhibition has concluded. And that is just what happened to the German pavilion for the 1929 event in Barcelona. It was demolished in January 1930. Later, Mies van der Rohe commented that working in Barcelona had been a high point of his professional life, and such was the enthusiasm for the lost pavilion that in 1986 it was reconstructed. Today it rates as a world class piece of European architecture.

A pavilion reborn

It is a wonderful building, a temple to the appeal of the Modern Movement. Sleek, textured and cool, the pavelló is an oasis of polished travertine and marble in lovely Montjuïc, southwest of Barcelona’s city center. From Montjuïc, there are super views over Barcelona and an opportunity to see the architectural legacy of the 1929 Expo and the 1992 Olympics – which were both based on and around Montjuïc.

Famous Expo leftovers

Hannover’s large mailbox. Photo: Photocapy

Some other buildings from that Barcelona fair won a reprieve from demolition. The Palau Nacional is a beautiful palace that was constructed as the centerpiece for the 1929 Expo. Original plans to demolish it met with fierce opposition from Barcelona citizens and the building found new life as home to a museum devoted to Catalan visual art.

Many European cities have World Fair leftovers that escaped the post-event bulldozers. The Oceanarium in Lisbon, a leftover from Expo 1998, is one. In the Heysel area of Brussels, the Atomium is another. It was built for the 1958 World Fair and celebrates the achievements of a generation that had – for better or worse – developed a fuller understanding of the atom.

Our favorite Expo relic, however, is in Hannover, where a 150-foot-high mailbox is a quirky reminder of the 2000 World Fair in Hannover – probably the most lackluster Expo event of all time, but that outrageous mailbox always raises a smile.

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