Casa Botines

Designed by the famous architect, Antonio Gaudí, and built in the Neo-Gothic style. The building is trapezoidal in shape and flanked by four towers with spires. The windows take their inspiration from the windows of the clerestory of the Cathedral of Leon. The entrance contains an image of St. George killing the dragon. The ground floor and mezzanine of the building were designed for the textile business while the upper four floors were for use as rented homes. Designed by the architect as a cube, with sharper elements accentuating the four corners.

The building is made of point worked limestone blocks from nearby quarries with discontinuous joints caused by the different sizes of the blocks, which contrast with the finer and more elegant look of the moulding and lobed arches of the open spaces. Gaudí made use of an open floor plan for the first time in his life for functional reasons and so the floors used for business have no load bearing walls other than the two stairwells, with the floor slabs being supported by twenty-six cast iron columns. The building is surrounded by a light well. The iron fence surrounding the well deserves special attention, the original design included stone pillars topped with lions.