Casa Bruno Cuadros

This guide to Casa Bruno Cuadros on Barcelona's Rambla traces a shopkeeper's decision, in the 1880s, to rebuild an ordinary building's facade around the city's craze for anything Japanese. You'll hear how architect Josep Vilaseca layered painted fans, lanterns and Egyptian motifs onto the walls, and why a coiled dragon clutching an umbrella became the shop's crowning advertisement. Look up at the corner to spot it before you move on.