Barcelona: Modernista Walk 43 Casa Lleó Morera (Passeig de Gràcia, 35) J. Amundson / May 2017 Lluís Domènech i Montaner, 1905 conversion Adapted from www.rutadelmodernisme.com Tours: www.casalleomorera.com

28 Cases Rocamora (Passeig de Gràcia, 6-14) House built 1864; remodeled for new owners Joaquim and Bonaventura Bassegoda, 1914 in Domènech’s mature floral style. Interior (esp. foyer, stair, elevator and piano nobile) reveals One of the largest architectural complexes in especially strong fusion of applied arts in the Eixample, built as a single architectural Modernista style (mosaics, glass, marquetry, volume. Neo-Gothic. Note stone façade, paving, sculpture). Note that façade was striking set of bay windows on the corner of remodeled in 1940, with much sculpture Carrer Casp. removed to make way for new storefront windows. Partial restoration in 1992. Original 39 Casa Malagrida (Passeig de Gràcia, 27) interior elements preserved in the MNAC. Joaquim Codina i Matalí, 1908 44 Casa Amatller (Passeig de Gràcia, 41) Originally designed as a dwelling for several Josep Puig i Cadafalch, 1898 remodeling families. The most outstanding features of the tours: [email protected]; www.amatller.org building are the spectacular dome and the wrought iron lamp-posts in a foyer in which the For the Amatller chocolate manufacturer. elegant frescos and the coffered ceiling are House originally built in 1875. Remodeling also worth seeing. inspired by urban Gothic mansions. Neo- Gothic elements: stepped Nordic façade, sgraffito treatment on exterior stucco, Flemish gable adorned with red and gold vitrified Valencian tiles, door and window sculptures, 47 Casa Dolors Calm (Ram. de Catalunya, 54) stucco work includes St. George & the dragon Josep Vilaseca i Casanovas, 1903 remodeling (by Eusebi Arnau). Bay window suggests

influence of Vienna Secession, esp. Otto Features elegant, if somewhat deteriorated, Wagner. Second floor features Amatller marquetry on the set of bay windows on the Institute of Hispanic Art (the building’s current façades, sgraffito work (decoration made by owners). Interior features Roman-inspired scratching through a surface to reveal a lower mosaics and white marble; polychrome ceilings layer of a contrasting color, typically in plaster with sgraffito work. Original furniture at the or stucco), and sculptural elements on the MNAC. ground floor and the cornice.

1 45 Casa Batlló (Passeig de Gràcia, 43) 46 Editorial Montaner i Simon, Fundació Antoni Gaudí, 1904 remodeling Antoni Tàpies (Aragó, 255) tours: [email protected]; www.casabatllo.cat Domènech i Montaner, 1880 tours: www.fundaciotapies.org Batlló was an ostentatious textile tycoon who hired Gaudí to remodel a house built in 1870. Non-academic façade with a slightly Mudejar He added a 5th floor and rebuilt interior walls (“Moorish,” denoting a style inspired by the to make a building with no right angles. architecture of Muslim designers in Al-Andalus) Façade combines stone on the ground floor appearance and unusual metallic structure (cast and the piano nobile with a mosaic facing on iron columns; steel beams. Now topped by a the higher floors (trencadís, a type of mosaic sculptural work by contemporary artist Antoni

used in Catalonia, created from broken tile and Tàpies, Núvol i cadira. ceramic shards), and is crowned with a scaly tiled roof. Some interpret it as an architectural 54 Casa Vídua Marfà (Passeig de Gràcia, 66) manifestation of the tale of St. George, the Manuel Comas i Thos, 1901-05 patron saint of Catalonia. The roof represents the dragon’s back; the ‘tower’ is the sword; the Great example of the Neo-Medieval style. iron balconies and first-floor bay structure are Features three semicircular arches giving onto skulls, bones and tendons of the dragon’s the street and slender columns supporting the victims. Alternately, some see an allegory of bay window on the façade. Carnival: the roof a harlequin’s hat, the balconies like ball masks, the ceramic tiles like 66 Palau Montaner (Mallorca, 278) confetti. Spectacular interior with tiled light Domènech i Montaner, 1896 well with graded colors. Not much original furniture left; but some preserved at MNAC. Begun by another architect who resigned in 1891, having completed the first and second 50 Farmàcia Bolós (Rambla de Catalunya, 77) floors. Completed for owners of a publishing Josep Domènech i Estapà, 1904-10 firm. Note decorative elements that recall the art of printing. Rich decoration with mosaics, Retains most of its original decorative sculpture, massive stair and huge skylight. elements: a fine lamp bearing the name of the Interior: lots of sculpture by Eusebi Arnau, shop, stained glass windows, and furniture, all woodwork by Gaspar Homar; glass by Antoni designed by the great craftsman Antoni Rigalt. Currently home to a delegation of Falguera. government from Madrid.

2 51 Casa Domènech i Estapà (València, 241) visit reveals the unusual structure of 270 Josep Domènech i Estapà, 1908-09 parabolic arches that support the roof, which was described by one Spanish poet as a Built for the architect’s own family. “warriors’ garden.” Chimneys are clad with Asymmetrical distribution of the exposed marble fragments, trencadís, and in one masonry façade with a bay window on one side instance, the bottoms of champagne bottles. offset by a line of windows on the other. The client’s unhappy wife redecorated the main floor in the Louis XVI style in 1926. Building deteriorated after the Civil War (1936- 39) the 20th c., restored starting in 1986.

68 Casa Casas-Carbó (Passeig de Gràcia, 96) Antoni Rovira i Rabassa, 1894 53 Casa Queraltó (Rambla Catalunya, 88) Josep Plantada i Artigas, 1907 Residence of painter Ramon Casas and writer Santiago Rusiñol. Façade is a blend of Much altered since construction, especially at medieval and Renaissance design principles roof. Maintains original elegant pink sgraffito with Modernista decorative elements. work and false arches with columns and

capitals. 76 Palau del Baró de Quadras (Diagonal, 373) Puig i Cadafalch, 1904 67 Casa Milà, La Pedrera (Passeig de Gràcia, 92 / Provença, 261-265) Veritable compendium of the architect’s Gaudí, 1905 capacity for design and elegance. Everything is Tours: www.lapedrera.com exemplary: from the wrought iron door to the highly-ornamented foyer with Mudejar details, Gaudí’s last residential project replaced a Roman mosaics, polychrome woodwork, modest 3-story building. Built for a property sgraffito work and wooden lattices. Note the developer who loved novelty, fashion, and thus double façade: (1) facing toward Av. Diagonal, Modernista. Façade clad in rough-hewn a noble Gothic and Plateresque forms with an limestone blocks and wrought-iron balconies. abundant floral decoration and the appearance Some people see the inspiration of medieval of a a great mansion; (2) rear façade (giving

fortresses here, with chimneys that look like onto Carrer Rosselló) reveals the building as a sentinels with helmets. Inside it’s more block of flats. Appropriately, this Catalan delicate, with painted ceilings and foyer. The Modernisme tour de force is now home to the underground coach house could be Institut Ramon Llull, which promotes study of considered Europe’s first parking garage. In the Catalan language. general, building is a figure-eight plan. Attic 3 70 Casa Antoni Costa (Ram. de Catalunya 122) 77 Casa Comalat (Diagonal, 442) Josep Domènech i Estapà, 1904 Salvador Valeri i Popurull, 1909-11

Perhaps the most representative multi-family Spectacular work, apparently influenced by dwelling by the architect. Monumental, wth Gaudí. Main façade is symmetrical and urban; Secession influences. rear façade (on Carrer Còrsega), is less formal, polychrome and decorated with peculiar Modernista wooden galleries with blinds and coloured ceramic work. The interior is no less impressive, with mosaic paving and elaborate furniture featuring unusually shaped benches and the peculiar foyer lights. 69 Casa Serra (Rambla de Catalunya, 126) Josep Puig i Cadafalch, 1903 74 Casa Bonaventura Ferrer (Passeig de Gràcia, 113) Grandiose single-family urban mansion, now Pere Falqués, 1906 backed by an unsympathetic glass façade (1987). Two wings forming an angle give onto Façade with a striking sculptural treatment, Rambla Catalunya. Note the Plateresque particularly the bay window, which gives it an (style of decoration in Spanish architecture exceptionally monumental appearance. inspired by low-relief silver work) door influenced by a famous Renassiace building that once stood in Barccelona and was 75 Casa Fuster (Passeig de Gràcia, 132) demolished in mid-19th c. Synthesis of other Domènech i Montaner, 1908-11 inspirations: balconies and windows combine

Gothic and Renaissance elements. Now home The architect’s last work in Barcelona, which to the Provincial Council of Barcelona. also marks the end of Passeig de Gràcia.

Façade’s cylindrical tower is typical of the DiM, adorned with sculptures that simulate swallows’ nests, and a curious (and unusual) French-style attic. Intended tower design never completed; DiM’s Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau for a taste of what it might have been like. The

culturally significant Cafè Vienès once occupied the ground floor, and the dance hall El Danubio was in the basement. Now a spiffy hotel.

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