Castle of the Three Dragons

This guide to the Castle of the Three Dragons in Barcelona opens with its architect, Lluis Domenech i Montaner, quitting his own building months before it finally opened, more than four months late, for the 1888 Universal Exposition. It follows his fight to use exposed brick, then considered a poor man's material, wrapped in iron and shaped like a fortress, and traces the building's odd nickname to a play performed in the city decades earlier. Look up at the corner towers and battlements as you walk the perimeter walkway between the two layers of facade.