Banks' Lamps! These are some of the most ornate street…read morelights I've ever seen! Seriously, these lamps remind me not to walk down the street and text- you walk into one of these Barcelona lamp posts, you're gonna get wrecked. They're on the 'block of discord' where a lot of Gaudi's buildings are, and there's just so much to see and look at along Gracia street. It's a free thing to see in Barcelona, and since they light up at night, you can go any time, day or night to check these lights out. If I had my euros in the local bank and they were churning out fancy schmancy streetlights like these in front of their headquarters, I'd demand higher interest rates on my accounts instead of lavish spending like this. But it makes for a really neat feature along a great walk-able street. Eric B's review pretty well sums up the trivia. Read his review to find out the style and the architect.

The Bancs-Fanals (banks, lamps), are located along the Paseo de Gracia. They were made in 1906 by…read moremunicipal architect Pere Falqués i Urpí . It is one of his best known works, although sometimes modernist architect Antoni Gaudí erroneously gets the credit in this Block of Discord area. The Bancs-Fanals consist of thirty-two benches built with the classic "trencadís" of Catalan modernism and integrated as a single piece with the lamp posts. The cast-iron lamp posts are in a "coup de fouet" style, that was made in the foundry of Manuel Ballarin. The best ways to see these beauties are either to walk this section of the Passeig de Gràcia or watch them go by while you're on the top deck of the Bus Turistic.