Writer Ana Viladomiu: Last Tenant of Gaudí's Casa Milà
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- Ana Viladomiu, 70, has lived in Antoni Gaudí's Casa Milà on Barcelona's Passeig de Gràcia for almost 40 years, paying an undisclosed fixed rent under a "renta antigua" contract — a type of agreement Spain stopped issuing in 1985.
- Viladomiu is one of an estimated 100,000 Spaniards still protected by renta antigua contracts; hers gives her and her separated husband Fernando Amat the right to live there until they die, at which point a not-for-profit foundation (formed from the failed Caixa Catalunya bank and two other savings banks) assumes ownership of the apartment.
- Casa Milà, completed in 1910 and a UNESCO heritage site since 1984, receives about a million visitors a year; Viladomiu says she's accustomed to being photographed on her way out and asked whether she's "the woman who lives upstairs."
- Viladomiu has published "The Last Tenant," a work of historical auto-fiction based on interviews with former residents of the building, now available in English; she emphasizes that "everything in it about La Pedrera is real."
- Notable figures who have passed through her apartment include architect Zaha Hadid, former Barcelona mayor and Catalan president Pasqual Maragall, and fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier — whom she met in the lift carrying bags of oranges and who later sent her roses.
- 2026 marks the centenary of Antoni Gaudí's death; the pope is scheduled to visit Barcelona in June to bless the newly completed Jesus Christ tower at the Sagrada Família, Gaudí's still-unfinished masterwork.
Why it matters: Viladomiu is among roughly 100,000 Spaniards still shielded by renta antigua contracts that haven't been issued since 1985, and hers is among the last in a Gaudí building — when she and her husband die, the managing foundation inherits the apartment. Her English-language memoir is a closing record of what the world-famous Casa Milà was like as a private home for nearly 40 years, not as a tourist site drawing a million visitors annually.
