Torre Bellesguard

Torre Bellesguard rises halfway up Barcelona’s Collserola mountain, where a modernist manor house takes the form of a medieval castle. Antoni Gaudí designed it between 1900 and 1909, using straight lines, slate and a mostly neogothic façade instead of his more familiar curves. Red and yellow mosaics cover the four-armed cross above the tower, while gardens surround the building with views across Barcelona.

The design grew from the ruins of a fifteenth-century castle that once served as a royal summer residence. Jaume Figueres and María Sagues Molíns commissioned the new house, and Gaudí preserved the site’s medieval character through stonework, royal symbols and surviving walls. Inside, white plaster, coloured glass, iron details and Catalan-arc ceilings bring a more modernist atmosphere, while restoration began in 2009 and public tours opened in 2013.

Look for the dragon on the terrace: roof slates form its tail and nostrils, and two windows create its eyes. Nearby mosaic benches use broken tiles in the trencadís technique, and an Aragonese crown shield bears the dates 1409 and 1909 beneath a rising sun.