CaixaForum / Casaromana Factory

CaixaForum, the Museum and Cultural Centre of “La Caixa” Community Projects, is housed in one of Barcelona’s landmark buildings, the Casaramona textile mill, a jewel of industrial modernista architecture designed by Josep Puig i Cadafalch.  MAP IT

Casimir Casaramona i Puigcercós (1838 - 1913) commissioned the famous architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch (1867 - 1956) to design a factory for his textile-production enterprise. In addition to being a widely acknowledged architect whose works included the Amatller, Macaya, Quadras and Terradas houses, Puig i Cadafalch also played a leading role in the art-nouveau movement alongside Gaudí and Domènech i Montaner.Puig i Cadafalch completed the Casaramona factory in 1911, culminating his art-nouveau period with it. The building features the simplicity and clarity of the thoroughly worked-out masterpiece: its bare brickwork is topped by Catalan vaults resting on castiron columns and enclosing light-filled, spacious workshops. Its response to the triumph of the horizontal that was characteristic of the local Gothic style is presented through the rhythm of its battlements on the one hand, but also and more particularly through the bold aspect conferred on the building by its two slender towers. It was awarded the City Council's prize for the best industrial building in that same year.

The Casaramona factory was closed down just seven years after its opening. After that, it was pressed into service as a warehouse during the Barcelona World Fair of 1929, and in 1940 it was converted into stables and garages for the National Police Force. "la Caixa" acquired the building in 1963, and in 1992 it was decided to return this building of great artistic value to Barcelona and to the country as a whole, while lending it a new function with social, cultural and educational aims, it thus becoming CaixaForum.

The architects Arata Isozaki, Francisco Javier Asarta, Roberto Luna and Robert Brufau all played their part in the refurbishment and extension work.

The Japanese architect Arata Isozaki added a daring walkway, courtyard, and entrance. (Isozaki is the designer responsible for the Palau St. Jordi, a major music and meeting venue, farther up the hill of Montjuïc.) Inside, after passing the huge abstract mural by Sol Lewitt, the elevator whisks you up to three exhibition spaces, connected by exterior halls. 

These are changing constantly, meaning that three normally very diverse shows can be viewed at the same time. L'Art Nouveau exhibition, in 2006, showed 19th-century art dealer Siegfried Bing's collection, which ranged from Japanese and other Asian works to van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec. 


The foundation puts on a lively calendar of related events and performances, the latter focusing on world music and modern dance. There is an excellent bookshop in the foyer.

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