Casa Lleó Morera

The Casa Lleó Morera is a family-size version of the Palau de la Música. Although the Palau is considered the epitome of modernista architecture due to its elaborate decorative elements, the artistic splendour of this house is also beyond dispute. Both  were designed by the brilliant architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner.

In 1905, Lluís Domènech i Montaner converted this house built in 1864 in order to improve it and redecorate it for its new owners, the Lleo Morera family. The most Renaissance-influenced architect of Modernisme in Barcelona combined in Casa Lleó Morera -a small and even modest work- the creative effort of a considerable number of artists and craftsmen who worked in close collaboration to achieve a surprising, almost miraculous result in the purest Domènech i Montaner floral style. The sculptors Eusebi Arnau and Alfons Juyol, the stained-glass artists Rigalt and Granell, and the mosaicists Mario Maragliano and Lluís Bru were just some of the people who brought their creative talents to the project.

 From the foyer to the staircase, the lift and the piano nobile, the Casa Lleó Morera is one of the richest and best preserved examples of applied arts in the Modernista style, featuring mosaics, stained glass, marquetry, paving and sculptures. 
The main feature of the house is precisely one of the great surprises of Modernisme in Barcelona: a monumental stained glass window by Antoni Rigalt that occupies the former main dining room of the house and represents a bucolic rural scene. 
The same room has eight panels of ceramic work with porcelain figures in relief and lintels in which Eusebi Arnau sculpted a Provençal legend, La dida de l’Infant Rei (The Child King’s Nanny).

Although the building is not open to visitors, you can admire the original period furniture from the family dining room, which is preserved intact at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC), on Montjuïc.

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