According to Casa Batlló itself, the scaled roof resembles a dragon's back and the four-armed cross the hilt of a sword: it is a popular interpretation of the legend of Sant Jordi, because Gaudí never explained his work. The bone-shaped columns would be its victims. From 21 to 23 April the façade is dressed in roses.
Almost everyone who walks past Casa Batlló ends up hearing the same story: the roof is a dragon, the cross is Sant Jordi's sword and the balconies are skulls. It's a lovely and widespread reading, but it helps to know where it comes from. The house itself tells it on its website for what it is, a popular interpretation, because Gaudí never explained what he had done. This guide separates what you see from what is told, and explains what happens on the façade every April, when it fills with roses.
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What the house itself says
On its page about the façade, Casa Batlló describes a roof made of large scales that resemble the back of an animal, topped with spherical pieces whose colours shift from one end to the other. Next to it is a tower with a four-armed cross pointing to the cardinal points.
That crown, like a dragon's back, and that cross, which would represent the hilt of a sword, have given rise, in the house's own words, to popular interpretations around the legend of Sant Jordi, Catalonia's patron saint. In that reading the roof would be the sword plunged into the dragon and the bone-shaped columns would recall its victims. That is why, over its history, the building has been known as the house of bones or the dragon house.
What to look at, from top to bottom
At the top, the cross and the roof of coloured tiles, which the house calls, as people do, the dragon's back. Lower down, the balcony railings: they are mask-shaped, cast in iron in a single piece and fixed at two anchor points, so that part of them juts out. In the legend reading, those balconies would be the victims' skulls.
On the ground, main and first floors, the façade has slender stone columns, bone-like in shape and decorated with floral motifs: these are the bones. On the main floor a large gallery projects over the passeig de Gràcia, designed to see and be seen. And on its Sant Jordi page the house also points to one different balcony, flower-shaped, which it calls the princess's balcony.
The reading continues inside. The wooden handrail in the entrance hall represents the spine of a large animal, and the house compares that hall to the dragon's tail. In the attic, a run of sixty catenary arches evokes an animal's ribcage: the belly of the beast.
What isn't documented
Gaudí left nothing in writing about what he meant. According to the house, he never explained his work and directed the façade from the street, without precise plans, as he usually did. The dragon is therefore a later reading, not a documented intention.
Nor is it the only one. Others have seen in the façade a waterscape reminiscent of Monet's water lilies, because of the glazed ceramics and fragments of glass. Salvador Dalí wrote that Gaudí had built a house in the shape of the sea. The house sums it up by saying he left an almost undecipherable canvas for each person to complete with their own imagination.
Sant Jordi at Casa Batlló
The legend the house tells is the Catalan one: in Montblanc a dragon demanded the daily sacrifice of a person chosen by lot; the lot fell on the princess and a knight, Sant Jordi, saved her by killing the dragon. A rosebush grew from the blood and the knight gave the princess a rose. 23 April is also World Book Day, promoted by Unesco in 1995, which is why in Catalonia people give roses and books on that day.
With that story on its façade, the house joins the celebration: according to its website, from 21 to 23 April the façade is dressed in roses. The ground-floor shop, Simbòlic, is free to enter all year, and for 2026 it sold a rose from the façade in a numbered edition of 125.
For anyone living in Barcelona in spring, the advantage is that you don't have to go on the 23rd, when the streets fill with stalls: the decoration lasts three days and you can see it for free from the pavement.
Other nights when the façade changes
The roses are not the only time the façade is transformed. The house lights it up for charitable causes on fixed dates; the ones left this autumn are 19 October, World Breast Cancer Day; 25 November, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women; and 1 December, World AIDS Day.
If you then want to go inside, prices, opening hours and the best time to go are in our guide to Casa Batlló for people who live in Barcelona.
Checked
Data checked on 15 October 2026 on the official Casa Batlló website (casabatllo.es): the pages on the façade, the interior and the history, the Sant Jordi page (legend, façade elements, dates of the roses and shop) and the charity lighting page. The dates of the April 2027 decoration had not yet been announced: confirm them on the website before you go.
Quick questions
Why is Casa Batlló called the house of bones?
Because of the bone-shaped stone columns on the façade, which in the popular reading of the legend of Sant Jordi would recall the dragon's victims. It has also been known as the dragon house.
When is the Casa Batlló façade covered in roses?
For Sant Jordi: according to its website, from 21 to 23 April the façade is dressed in roses, and you can see it for free from the pavement.
Did Gaudí explain the meaning of Casa Batlló?
No. According to the house, Gaudí never explained his work and directed the façade from the street, without precise plans. The dragon is a popular interpretation.