Visiting Casa Vicens 2026: Rooms, Time & Tips

Booking choice: The Casa Vicens ticket, from $27 per person. Check dates Tour details

Casa Vicens is a house, not a palace, and that is its charm. Gaudí designed it in his late twenties for Manuel Vicens and his family as a summer home with a large garden, and each floor tells a different part of the story: the family rooms on the main floor, the bedrooms above, the old staff quarters in the attic and Gaudí's first walkable roof on top.

Here is the visit floor by floor, how long to allow, how the free audio guide works, the house rules, access for wheelchairs and prams, and the easiest ways to get there.

The quick answer

Casa Vicens says a visit takes about 60 to 75 minutes. Go self-guided with the free phone audio guide in 16 languages (bring earphones) or join a guided visit of up to 12. Highlights: the fountain porch, the dining room, the palm-tree ceiling of the smoking room, the painted birds upstairs and the rooftop. Photos are fine without flash; bags over 30 x 30 cm go in lockers; there is no re-entry. Take metro L3 to Fontana or Lesseps.

How long does a Casa Vicens visit take?

About 60 to 75 minutes, Casa Vicens says. Allow up to 2 hours if you want the café and the shop as well.

The self-guided route and the guided visit both take 60 to 75 minutes. The guided tour on GetYourGuide is listed at 1 hour 30 minutes, and you are free to stay on after the guide finishes. Add 20 minutes or so for the garden café, which only ticket holders can use, and the basement shop.

The last entry is 1 hour 15 minutes before closing: 18:45 from March to October and 16:45 from November to February. A slot near the end of the day works, but it leaves no time for the café.

What do you see in the garden and on the fountain porch?

A garden of about 300 m² with an old oak and a 12 m magnolia, a niche recalling the Santa Rita chapel, and a covered porch cooled by a fountain that falls in a thin sheet of water.

The garden was far bigger in the Vicens family's time, with a waterfall under a parabolic arch and two fountains. Parts of the plot were sold for housing in 1946, when the waterfall was demolished, and in 1963. What is left still has an oak of nearly 8 m and a magnolia of 12 m, plus a niche that recalls the old Santa Rita chapel.

The porch links the house to the garden. Water from the fountain falls as a thin sheet that shows rainbow colours in the sun, and the tilting latticed shutters let the air through. The restoration of 2015 to 2017 brought both back. Look up at the street gate on the way in: its cast-iron palm leaves copy the dwarf palmetto that grew on the site.

The fountain porch with its latticed shutters — At Casa Vicens, a sheet of falling water cooled the porch in summer.

What is inside: the dining room and the smoking room?

The dining room is covered in plant motifs around furniture Gaudí designed for the family's paintings. The smoking room has a plaster ceiling shaped like palm trees, hung with clusters of dates.

The dining room is the richest room in the house. Plant motifs cover the walls and ceiling, and the wooden furniture was designed to frame paintings by Francesc Torrescassana that Manuel Vicens owned. There are 32 paintings in the room.

The smoking room is small and unlike anything else Gaudí did: a coloured plaster ceiling of muqarnas, the honeycomb vaulting of Islamic architecture, worked into palm fronds and dates. The wall tiles are papier-mâché by Hermenegildo Miralles, and the wainscot tiles carry painted yellow and red roses. Casa Vicens has been working to recover the room's original blue for the Gaudí Year, after a cream layer added by later owners covered it.

A palm-frond plaster ceiling with hanging dates — Casa Vicens' smoking-room ceiling turns Islamic muqarnas into a grove of palms.

Hear the stories behind the dining room, the smoking room and the symbols from an in-house expert, then explore on your own as long as you like.

★ 4.8 · 1 hour 30 minutes · from $27

Explore the Casa Vicens guided tour Tour details

What is on the upper floors and the rooftop?

Bedrooms painted with birds and plants on the first floor, an exhibition of Gaudí's plans and furniture in the attic, and on top Gaudí's first walkable roof, with tiled chimneys and a turret.

First floor: three bedrooms, a bathroom and a sitting room linked by hexagonal corridors. The domed room over the smoking room is painted with climbing plants and flying birds. The pink bedroom has brambles and ivy; the blue one, passionflowers.
Attic: once the staff quarters, now the permanent exhibition with Gaudí's plans, models of how the house changed, a reproduction of the Manuscrito de Reus and the furniture he made for the Vicens home in Alella, including a cedar corner cabinet the museum bought at auction in 2023.
Rooftop: a walkway between three chimneys and a minaret-like tower in green and white tiles. It was Gaudí's first roof made to be walked on. The second turret came with the 1925 to 1927 extension by Joan Baptista Serra de Martínez. To spot the join on the facade, look at the tiles: Gaudí alternated them, Serra laid them uniformly.
Basement: the old coal cellar with Catalan vaults, now the shop and bookshop laCapell and a short show on the restoration.

Rooftop walkway between tiled chimneys and a turret — Casa Vicens has the first roof Gaudí designed for people to walk on.

How does the Casa Vicens audio guide work?

It is free and runs on your own phone: scan the QR code, connect to the free WiFi and choose one of 16 languages. Bring earphones.

The languages are Spanish, Catalan, English, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic and Hebrew. The GetYourGuide ticket includes the same audio guide but not headphones, and one guest stresses bringing a headset. Charge your phone before you go, since you will use it for an hour or more.

One guest summed up the self-guided format: "Such a beautiful home. Really enjoyed our visit and the self guided tour on phone" (Karen, Oct 2026).

The audio guide in your language at your own pace, with a timed skip-the-line entry and free cancellation up to 24 hours before.

Check dates for the Casa Vicens ticket

What are the rules at Casa Vicens: photos, bags and re-entry?

Photos and video are fine without flash, but tripods and selfie sticks are not. Big bags go in lockers, and there is no re-entry once you leave.

Photos: allowed without flash. No tripods, selfie sticks or phone stabilisers.
Bags: no suitcases. Rucksacks and bags over 30 x 30 cm, umbrellas and helmets go in the lockers.
Food and drink: only on the café terrace, never inside. No smoking anywhere, terraces included.
Entry: at the time on your ticket. Once you leave, you cannot go back in.
Other rules: minors must come with an adult; no costumes, wedding outfits or swimwear; only accredited service and emotional support dogs.
Bikes and scooters: no space inside, but there is bicycle parking in front.

Is Casa Vicens accessible, and when is the best time to go?

Yes, Casa Vicens has ramps and lifts so visitors can get around. In our experience the first morning slots and the late afternoon are quieter.

The 2015 to 2017 restoration added a new staircase and a lift, and Casa Vicens says ramps and lifts let you "get around with ease". The GetYourGuide listings for the ticket and the guided tour both describe the route as adapted for reduced mobility, and one guided-tour guest notes the lift helped two people in their group.

On timing, our advice is to take a slot at opening or in the last two hours, and to check for announced early closings before you book. In our view morning light suits the garden facade; the rooftop is best on a clear day. Casa Vicens is open on Mondays, when Palau Güell and Bellesguard are closed, which makes it an easy pick to start a week.

A porch with latticed shutters and a falling sheet of water — In our view, the porch is at its best on a sunny morning.

How do you get to Casa Vicens?

Take metro L3 to Fontana or Lesseps; Fontana is the closer stop, a few minutes' walk away. Buses 22, 24, 27, 87, 114, H6, V17 and D40 also stop nearby.

Metro: L3, Fontana or Lesseps. From Passeig de Gràcia (for Casa Batlló) it is two stops north to Fontana; from Diagonal (for La Pedrera), one.
FGC trains: Gràcia (L6, L7, S1, S2, S5, S55) or Plaça Molina.
Bus: 22, 24, 27, 87, 114, H6, V17 and D40. The H6 and D40 also run along Travessera de Dalt below Park Güell.
Sightseeing bus: the Park Güell stop on the Bus Turístic Blue line and the Barcelona City Tour East route.
Bike: Bicing stations 221 and 230, and bike parking in front of the house.

The address is Carrer de les Carolines 20-26, in the old village of Gràcia. To pair it with the park up the hill, see the Park Güell and Casa Vicens guide.