Casa Comalat

This guide to Casa Comalat in Barcelona follows the split personality of a Modernist mansion built for businessman Joan Comalat: a restrained stone face on the grand Diagonal, and a wildly different ceramic-mosaic face around the corner. You'll hear about the architect, Salvador Valeri i Pupurull, who built it around 1909-1911 in the shadow of Gaudi's rising La Pedrera, and about the ceramicist who covered the side street's walls in color. Best seen by walking from one facade to the other, so the contrast lands the way Valeri intended.