Passeig de Gràcia

This guide to Passeig de Gràcia in Barcelona starts with the hexagonal tile underfoot, a design Antoni Gaudí drew in 1904 for Casa Batlló that never made it into the house, and its second home two years later inside his Casa Milà further along the avenue. It follows the rivalry along this stretch of the boulevard, where four of the city's grandest families hired four rival architects, Domènech i Montaner, Puig i Cadafalch, and Gaudí among them, to outdo each other door by door on the block Barcelona nicknamed the illa de la discòrdia. Look down as you walk this stretch and trace how far that one tile pattern runs.