Casa Calvet

The Casa Calvet de Barcelona (1899) is one of Antoni Gaudí’s earliest buildings. Some people consider it his most conservative work but it also contains markedly modernista elements, such as the façade which terminates in a curve and the attic balconies, which look like something from a fairy tale. (map)



Casa Calvet (1898-1899) was the first residential building by the brilliant architect in the Eixample, and with it he started a line that was followed by many houses that also used Baroque or Rococo elements such as the undulating forms, the peculiar treatment of the irregular surface of Montjuïc sandstone, the balconies and the bay windows.

In Casa Calvet, Gaudí gave a different treatment to each element of the building. The façade features a Baroque bay window with wrought iron railings and reliefs representing different types of fungi in reference to the fact that Eduard Calvet, the first owner of the building, was an amateur mycologist. The decoration of the bay window includes the coat of arms of Catalonia and a representation of a cypress tree, symbol of hospitality. 

The Casa Calvet was built by Antoni Gaudí for the textile manufacturer Pere Màrtir Calvet, who set up his business premises on the ground floor and in the basement, and used the upper floors as his private residence. In 1900, Barcelona City Council awarded it the prize for the best building of the year. 

The Casa Calvet pays tribute to the baroque Catalan style and this is shown in the foyer and the ground floor premises, which have now been transformed into the Casa Calvet Restaurant, where you can see the typical Catalan ceiling, granite Solomonic columns and arches with their vine-shaped reliefs. The restaurant has conserved the original furniture of Calvet’s office, from which he ran his textile emporium. Interesting features are the lamps, the benches in the reception room and the courtesy benches against the wall, the wood partitions that separated the offices from the textile store, the door handles and the beams of the ceiling. 

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