Barcelona’s extensive Eixample district brings together a large number of modernista buildings of great architectural value. However, it is the central part which exhibits most of the buildings designed in this style. Known as the Quadrat d’Or (Golden Square), it is the place where Barcelona’s moneyed classes came to live in the flats designed by the leading architects of the day, such as Antoni Gaudí.
In the middle of the Quadrat d'Or, the elegant, majestic Passeig de Gràcia (1) was a showcase for Barcelona’s bourgeoisie at the end of the 19th century. It links the Plaça Catalunya with the district of Gràcia, hence its name. The presence of Barcelona’s finest buildings makes this avenue a veritable open-air museum and the ideal backbone of a Quadrat d'Or Tour of Barcelon's modernista masterpieces which will end up in apotheosis with the visit of the "Sagrada Familia Basilica". (map)
This tour includes only the modernista buildings conveniently located in the vicinity of Passeig de Gràcia and along the way to La Sagrada Familia Basilica. It is long enough, 5.9 km / 3.6 mi. It can be reduce 50% by staying strictly on Passeig de Gràcia. But for those who are not afraid of having an overdose of Modernista buildings there is another tour that I called "Quadrat d'Or East Part" and which leads to several very interesting pieces of architecture. The amateurs of marathons can even combine the two, 8.7 km / 5.3 mi., since the East-Part ends where the main tour starts, at Plaça de Catalunya. There is also a "Quadrat d'Or West Part" tour which regroup some less important buildings scattered along another large avenue of the Eixample, Grand Via de les Corts Catalones.
The route is materialized on the map by an orange line, indented where there is a point of interest mentioned below. The main tour includes 12 major sites, the East-Part has 4, each represented on the map by a black rectangle, and which have in this blog their own page of description and pictures, accessible by clicking on their name. Each of these pages has a "back" link at the end to return to the tour page. All these pages can be selected by clicking the "Quadrat d'Or Tour" label in the right column of the blog". The other links open in a new tab/window the maps, pictures,pages external to this blog. The East and West tours are materialized on the map by lighter orange lines.
"In the late 19th century, at the time of the Universal Exhibition of 1888, Barcelona was a bustling city in which architecture played a major role as an indicator of the social status of the then flourishing bourgeoisie. Having a Modernista house meant that one was keeping up with the trends of the social elite. To meet the expectations and vanities of their clients, the architects used their whole repertoire of resources in their work: floral decorations, rich sculptural and wrought iron work, undulating forms, stained glass, sgraffito work, and ceramic details. Large cities can often be associated with buildings and monuments that become their universal emblems. This, however, is not the specific case of Barcelona. The architectural personality of Barcelona is characterised more by its urban landscape than by outstanding individual buildings. One of the areas in which this urban landscape is most exceptional is the Eixample, a district in which there occurred an extraordinary architectural phenomenon at the turn of the century: Modernisme, the particular local version of Art Nouveau, a European trend that led to an outburst of creative activity and also left remarkable architecture in other cities such as Vienna, Munich, Nancy, Brussels, Glasgow or Berlin." (Ruta del Modernisme).
Plaça de Catalunya (2), the nerve center of Barcelona that separates the districts of Ciutat Vella and of the nineteenth century Eixample, will be our starting point.
Passeig de Gràcia, 2-4.The architectural marvels of Passeig de Gràcia begin almost at the bottom of the boulevard with C (Pascual i Pons House), the most Gothic work by Enric Sagnier i Villavecchia, one of the most prolific Modernista architects of Barcelona. The main interest of the building lies in the interior: it has stained glass windows representing medieval figures that can be seen from the exterior, a staircase with sculptural decorative elements and iron and glass lamps, and a majestic wooden fireplace. Built in 1890-1891, the Casa Pons i Pascual was originally two separate houses designed individually to make full use of their exceptional location, at the corner of Plaça de Catalunya and Passeig de Gràcia. A major remodelling of the houses was undertaken in 1984.
Passeig de Gràcia, 6-14. You will come now to the buildings (Rocamora Houses), (map). This is one of the largest architectural complexes in the Eixample. Though the blocks of this district were normally divided into individual buildings, this site was built as a single architectural volume to emphasise its magnificence. It is a 1914 building in a clearly Neo-Gothic style by the brothers Joaquim and Bonaventura Bassegoda, who paid special attention to the treatment of the stone on the façade and to the striking set of bay windows on the corner of Carrer Casp.
The crossing with Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes is dominated by two striking buildings, though not Modernista in style:
Passeig de Gràcia, 13. On the left is, an urban mansion built in 1887 by Tiberi Sabater, which was transformed in 1934 into a theatre and has now been converted into a multi-screen cinema.
Passeig de Gràcia, 18. On the right is the undulating Rationalist facade decorated with glass bricks of , a jeweller’s shop designed by Josep Lluís Sert in 1934.
Passeig de Gràcia, 27. A little further up, on the left side is the built in 1908 by Joaquim Codina i Matalí. The most outstanding features of the building are the spectacular dome and the wrought iron lamp-posts in a foyer in which the elegant frescos and the coffered ceiling are also worth seeing.
Passeig de Gràcia, 35-43. In front of us and up the Passeig stands the (Block of Discord), the 100 metres of street that contain three masterpieces by the three main Modernista architects: Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Casa Lleó Morera (3), Josep Puig i Cadafalch, Casa Amatller (4) and Antoni Gaudí, Casa Batlló (5). The block was given this name because of the presumed visual incompatibility of the three large buildings that share this section of Passeig de Gràcia between Carrer Consell de Cent and Carrer Aragó.
Between Casa Lleó Morera and Casa Amalter are two buildings that provide a perfect yet discreet counterpoint, contemporary to the large works of the Mansana de la Discòrdia. The first of these is the (Passeig de Gràcia, 37), a sober 1911 architectural work by Enric Sagnier that was also the conversion of a previous building, dating from 1868, which included the complete replacement of the facade. The second is (Passeig de Gràcia, 39), a rather undistinguished Classicist work by Jaume Brossa (1901), which nevertheless houses a delightful little Perfume Museum on the ground floor. Opened in 1961, it shows a collection of almost 5,000 perfume bottles and phials from different cultures and civilisations, ranging from Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Carthaginian, Arabic and Oriental bottles of pottery and glass to an interesting collection of phials from the 17th to the 19th century in porcelain, crystal glass and other noble materials.
Turn left into Aragó.
Aragó, 255. On reaching Carrer Aragó, turn left to find , a publishing company owned by the family of Domènech i Montaner’s mother, which currently houses the . Built by Domènech i Montaner himself from 1880 to 1882, this is one of the pioneering examples of the architectural and urban renovation that was introduced by the Modernista movement.
At this point a short detour (2 blocks) from the main Route down Rambla Catalunya is suggested to visit two major museums of Barcelona and some interesting buildings :
Rambla de Catalunya, 77. A little further up is the Farmàcia Bolos by Josep Domènech i Estapà, built between 1904 and 1910, which still has almost all its original decorative elements: a presumptuous, aristocratic lamp bearing the name of the shop, a stained glass window depicting an orange tree, and furniture, all designed by the great craftsman Antoni Falguera.
A few hundred meters away north of our route, on Rambla de Catalunya two other Modernista buildings :
València, 241. (map). A little further up, you will come to , built by the architect Josep Domènech i Estapà for his own family in 1908-1909, which features a curious asymmetric distribution of the exposed masonry façade with a bay window on one side offset by a line of windows on the other.
València, at the corner of Passeig de Gràcia. You will find the (Passeig de Gràcia, 66), one of the best examples of the Neo-Medieval style language imported by Modernista architects. Built by Manuel Comas i Thos between 1901 and 1905, it features three semicircular arches giving onto the street and slender columns supporting the bay window on the façade. On the corner opposite the Casa Marfà is the Hotel Majestic and just in front of it you can see one of the 31 (Benches/Street Lamps) designed in 1906 by Pere Falqués to light the ostentatious boulevard appropriately. Restored from their then very deteriorated state in the 1980s by the City Council, one must distinguish these original elements from the circular benches-cum-flower beds you will find on some of the wide chamfers of Passeig de Gràcia.
Passeig de Gràcia, 74. Almost beside Hotel Majestic, is , in which Enric Sagnier (1907) undertook a thorough remodelling of an existing building, modifying its rear balconies, converting the garden into a warehouse, and giving the façade a Modernista appearance by adding a bay window, new railings on the balconies, and a curved cornice. Nevertheless, the building is considered to be predominantly eclectic in style.
Passeig de Gràcia, 75, at the crossroad of Mallorca. A little further up, on the other side of the avenue is the Neo-Gothic inspired designed by Josep Vilaseca i Casanovas (1895-1896), which today houses a hotel and has one of the most attractive facades on the Passeig, thanks to its brilliant polychromy.
Passeig de Gràcia, 92. Going up to the corner of Carrer Provença, you will come to the jewel in the crown of Modernisme in Barcelona, standing majestically over the intersection : the Casa Milà, popularly known as La Pedrera (9), the Catalan expression for stone quarry.
Some say that the best place to see La Pedrera is from the terrace of the Alaire bar, on top of the Condes Hotel, sipping a cocktail and listening to live music.
Passeig de Gràcia, 96. Leaving La Pedrera, we continue up Passeig de Gràcia towards Avinguda Diagonal. After a few meters we find the, built by Antoni Rovira i Rabassa in 1894. The main interest of this building, which was the residence of the painter Ramon Casas and the writer Santiago Rusiñol, is its interior which features the terrace of the main floor, an elegant Romantic garden of the late 19th century, and the fireplace designed by the decorator Josep Pascó (1902) for the piano nobile of the building. The only outstanding feature on the facade is the carved stone balcony of the main floor.
Passeig de Gràcia, 107. (map). The last important building before reaching Avinguda Diagonal is , a noble building surrounded by gardens built in 1903 in Neo-Classical style. This building, by Henri Grandpierre and Joan Martorell i Montells, houses the tourist information office of the Generalitat of Catalonia.
The intersection of Avinguda Diagonal and Passeig de Gràcia is popularly known as Cinc d’Oros -the “five of gold coins” from a Spanish game of cards- because of the five Modernista lamp-posts by Falqués that decorated the square at the beginning of the 20th century ( now on Avinguda Gaudí, between the and Hospital de S ). The intersection is currently presided by an obelisk which used to support a statue of the Republic by Josep Viladomat, withdrawn after the Civil War (and currently relocated in Plaça Llucmajor, in the northern area of Barcelona). The substitute statue at the base of the obelisk, dedicated to the fascist Victory of 1939, was made by Frederic Marès, although with the advent of democracy in 1979 the fascist symbols adorning it were erased by the Barcelona City Council, as with many other monuments and buildings in town.
Above the Cinc d’Oros, Passeig de Gràcia becomes a landscaped space that the inhabitants of the Gràcia district call ‘Els Jardinets’ (The Little Gardens). This small green is a miniature open-air museum of sculptures: a metal installation and the sculpture La Lectura (Reading) by Josep Clarà are homage to Pompeu Fabra, author of the modern Catalan grammatical rules. This final section of Passeig de Gràcia, between Avinguda Diagonal and the urban fabric of the old town of Gràcia, has two outstanding Modernista buildings.
Passeig de Gràcia, 113. One of them is the Casa Bonaventura Ferrer, built by Pere Falqués in 1906. Falqués gave a striking sculptural treatment to the façade of this building, particularly in the bay window, which gives it an exceptionally monumental appearance.
Passeig de Gràcia, 132. (map). Slightly further up is the , Domènech i Montaner’s last work in Barcelona (1908-1911). This building marks the end of Passeig de Gràcia and to some extent summarises the work of Lluís Domènech i Montaner. The façade has a cylindrical tower typical of the architect, adorned with sculptures that simulate swallows’ nests, and a curious French-style attic which is not very common in Modernista architecture. The building should have been crowned with a tower similar to that of the administration pavilion of the Hospital de Sant Pau, but it was never completed. In 2004 the company Hoteles Center reopened the mythical Cafè Vienès, after buying the house and fully restoring it into a luxury hotel. Every Thursday Café Vienés transforms into an exclusive jazz club.
Diagonal, 373. (map). Back on Avinguda Diagonal, going towards Passeig de Sant Joan, the Route comes to a building by Josep Puig i Cadafalch, the Palau del Baro de Quadras. Built in 1904, it is now the premises of the House of Asia. The mansion is a veritable compendium of Puig i Cadafalch’s capacity for design and elegance. Everything is exemplary: from the wrought iron door to the interior, with a highly ornamented foyer. One of the curiosities is the building’s double facade. The facade giving onto Avinguda Diagonal emphasises the noble nature of the mansion, and combines Gothic and Plateresque forms with an abundant floral decoration. The rear facade (giving onto Carrer Rosselló) reveals that the building was in origin not a palace, but a simple block of flats. The Arabic-style interior contains Roman mosaics, polychrome woodwork, sgraffito work and wooden lattices.
Diagonal, 442. On the opposite side of the avenue is the by Salvador Valeri i Popurull.
Diagonal, 416-420. On the same side of Avinguda Diagonal, at the intersection with Carrer Rosselló and Carrer Roger de Llúria, is the Casa Terrades (11), "Casa de les Punxes", the House of the Spikes.
Turn left into Aragó.
Aragó, 255. On reaching Carrer Aragó, turn left to find , a publishing company owned by the family of Domènech i Montaner’s mother, which currently houses the . Built by Domènech i Montaner himself from 1880 to 1882, this is one of the pioneering examples of the architectural and urban renovation that was introduced by the Modernista movement.
At this point a short detour (2 blocks) from the main Route down Rambla Catalunya is suggested to visit two major museums of Barcelona and some interesting buildings :
- Rambla de Catalunya, 54. On the left we will see . This building, remodelled in 1903 by Josep Vilaseca i Casanovas, features elegant -if rather deteriorated- marquetry on the set of bay windows on the facades, sgraffito work, and sculptural elements on the ground floor and the cornice.
- Rambla Catalunya, 47. A few metres away on the opposite side of the avenue is by Enric Sagnier (1902-1904). Its most outstanding element, the dome, disappeared during a later addition of floors, and the main interest at present lies in the sober design of the undulating bay windows.
- Down Rambla Catalunya, 30 meters on the right into Carrer del Consell de Cent, n° 292, is one of the best chocolate shop of Barcelona, Cacao Sampaka. You think I choose this route only to come here ? It is exaggerated but not entirely false !!!
- Diputació, 250. (map). Now continue down Rambla Catalunya and turn right at Carrer Diputació, where you will find another building by Sagnier, the , which hosts the Fundació Francisco Godia (7) specialised in medieval art, ceramics and modern and contemporary painting. It includes works by Ramon Casas, Santiago Rusiñol, Nonell, Picasso, Joan Miró and Miquel Barceló.
- Balmes, 48. Turn right into Carrer de Balmes. On your left you can see the University of Theology of Catalunya and a little further on your right, in a former textile factory designed by Eric Sagnier, the Museu del Modernisme Català (Mmcat) (8), dedicated exclusively to modernista art.
Rambla de Catalunya, 77. A little further up is the Farmàcia Bolos by Josep Domènech i Estapà, built between 1904 and 1910, which still has almost all its original decorative elements: a presumptuous, aristocratic lamp bearing the name of the shop, a stained glass window depicting an orange tree, and furniture, all designed by the great craftsman Antoni Falguera.
A few hundred meters away north of our route, on Rambla de Catalunya two other Modernista buildings :
- Rambla Catalunya, 78. (map). If you return to Rambla de Catalunya, a little further up on the same side you will come to the, by Salvador Viñals i Sabaté (1907-1909), which occupies a large site on the corner of Carrer València and features a large central bay window and a slightly Modernista foyer.
- Rambla Catalunya, 88. (map). On the corner of Carrer Mallorca stands the Casa Queralto, a 1907 building by Josep Plantada i Artigas which has undergone major modifications in the course of time, including the mutilation of its crown. It is decorated with elegant pink sgraffito work and false arches with columns and capitals.
València, 241. (map). A little further up, you will come to , built by the architect Josep Domènech i Estapà for his own family in 1908-1909, which features a curious asymmetric distribution of the exposed masonry façade with a bay window on one side offset by a line of windows on the other.
València, at the corner of Passeig de Gràcia. You will find the (Passeig de Gràcia, 66), one of the best examples of the Neo-Medieval style language imported by Modernista architects. Built by Manuel Comas i Thos between 1901 and 1905, it features three semicircular arches giving onto the street and slender columns supporting the bay window on the façade. On the corner opposite the Casa Marfà is the Hotel Majestic and just in front of it you can see one of the 31 (Benches/Street Lamps) designed in 1906 by Pere Falqués to light the ostentatious boulevard appropriately. Restored from their then very deteriorated state in the 1980s by the City Council, one must distinguish these original elements from the circular benches-cum-flower beds you will find on some of the wide chamfers of Passeig de Gràcia.
Passeig de Gràcia, 74. Almost beside Hotel Majestic, is , in which Enric Sagnier (1907) undertook a thorough remodelling of an existing building, modifying its rear balconies, converting the garden into a warehouse, and giving the façade a Modernista appearance by adding a bay window, new railings on the balconies, and a curved cornice. Nevertheless, the building is considered to be predominantly eclectic in style.
Passeig de Gràcia, 75, at the crossroad of Mallorca. A little further up, on the other side of the avenue is the Neo-Gothic inspired designed by Josep Vilaseca i Casanovas (1895-1896), which today houses a hotel and has one of the most attractive facades on the Passeig, thanks to its brilliant polychromy.
Passeig de Gràcia, 92. Going up to the corner of Carrer Provença, you will come to the jewel in the crown of Modernisme in Barcelona, standing majestically over the intersection : the Casa Milà, popularly known as La Pedrera (9), the Catalan expression for stone quarry.
Some say that the best place to see La Pedrera is from the terrace of the Alaire bar, on top of the Condes Hotel, sipping a cocktail and listening to live music.
Passeig de Gràcia, 96. Leaving La Pedrera, we continue up Passeig de Gràcia towards Avinguda Diagonal. After a few meters we find the, built by Antoni Rovira i Rabassa in 1894. The main interest of this building, which was the residence of the painter Ramon Casas and the writer Santiago Rusiñol, is its interior which features the terrace of the main floor, an elegant Romantic garden of the late 19th century, and the fireplace designed by the decorator Josep Pascó (1902) for the piano nobile of the building. The only outstanding feature on the facade is the carved stone balcony of the main floor.
Passeig de Gràcia, 107. (map). The last important building before reaching Avinguda Diagonal is , a noble building surrounded by gardens built in 1903 in Neo-Classical style. This building, by Henri Grandpierre and Joan Martorell i Montells, houses the tourist information office of the Generalitat of Catalonia.
The intersection of Avinguda Diagonal and Passeig de Gràcia is popularly known as Cinc d’Oros -the “five of gold coins” from a Spanish game of cards- because of the five Modernista lamp-posts by Falqués that decorated the square at the beginning of the 20th century ( now on Avinguda Gaudí, between the and Hospital de S ). The intersection is currently presided by an obelisk which used to support a statue of the Republic by Josep Viladomat, withdrawn after the Civil War (and currently relocated in Plaça Llucmajor, in the northern area of Barcelona). The substitute statue at the base of the obelisk, dedicated to the fascist Victory of 1939, was made by Frederic Marès, although with the advent of democracy in 1979 the fascist symbols adorning it were erased by the Barcelona City Council, as with many other monuments and buildings in town.
- Diagonal, 502-504. (map). 300 meters away west of our route, at the corner of carrer Balmes, is the , the headquarters of the Círculo Eqüestre, a high-society club. Built in 1910 by Joan Josep Hervàs i Arizmendi, the house has undergone many modifications in the course of history. One of the main original features of this Neo-Gothic style mansion is the oval window of the dining room that gives onto Avinguda Diagonal, popularly known as “the fish tank”.
Above the Cinc d’Oros, Passeig de Gràcia becomes a landscaped space that the inhabitants of the Gràcia district call ‘Els Jardinets’ (The Little Gardens). This small green is a miniature open-air museum of sculptures: a metal installation and the sculpture La Lectura (Reading) by Josep Clarà are homage to Pompeu Fabra, author of the modern Catalan grammatical rules. This final section of Passeig de Gràcia, between Avinguda Diagonal and the urban fabric of the old town of Gràcia, has two outstanding Modernista buildings.
Passeig de Gràcia, 113. One of them is the Casa Bonaventura Ferrer, built by Pere Falqués in 1906. Falqués gave a striking sculptural treatment to the façade of this building, particularly in the bay window, which gives it an exceptionally monumental appearance.
Passeig de Gràcia, 132. (map). Slightly further up is the , Domènech i Montaner’s last work in Barcelona (1908-1911). This building marks the end of Passeig de Gràcia and to some extent summarises the work of Lluís Domènech i Montaner. The façade has a cylindrical tower typical of the architect, adorned with sculptures that simulate swallows’ nests, and a curious French-style attic which is not very common in Modernista architecture. The building should have been crowned with a tower similar to that of the administration pavilion of the Hospital de Sant Pau, but it was never completed. In 2004 the company Hoteles Center reopened the mythical Cafè Vienès, after buying the house and fully restoring it into a luxury hotel. Every Thursday Café Vienés transforms into an exclusive jazz club.
Diagonal, 373. (map). Back on Avinguda Diagonal, going towards Passeig de Sant Joan, the Route comes to a building by Josep Puig i Cadafalch, the Palau del Baro de Quadras. Built in 1904, it is now the premises of the House of Asia. The mansion is a veritable compendium of Puig i Cadafalch’s capacity for design and elegance. Everything is exemplary: from the wrought iron door to the interior, with a highly ornamented foyer. One of the curiosities is the building’s double facade. The facade giving onto Avinguda Diagonal emphasises the noble nature of the mansion, and combines Gothic and Plateresque forms with an abundant floral decoration. The rear facade (giving onto Carrer Rosselló) reveals that the building was in origin not a palace, but a simple block of flats. The Arabic-style interior contains Roman mosaics, polychrome woodwork, sgraffito work and wooden lattices.
Diagonal, 442. On the opposite side of the avenue is the by Salvador Valeri i Popurull.
Diagonal, 416-420. On the same side of Avinguda Diagonal, at the intersection with Carrer Rosselló and Carrer Roger de Llúria, is the Casa Terrades (11), "Casa de les Punxes", the House of the Spikes.
Continuing along Avinguda Diagonal we come to Placa Mossèn Jacint Verdaguer, presided over by a monument to Verdaguer, the nineteenth-century “National Poet of Catalonia”. The monument was designed in 1914 by a Josep M. Pericas that was already evolving, moving away from Modernisme: the statue is by Joan Borrell, and the stone reliefs by the Oslé brothers.
Passeig de Sant Joan, 108. From this square one can see the , an urban residence built by Josep Puig i Cadafalch in 1901. This mansion is another medievalistic experiment by the Catalan architect. The white façade of the palace, culminating in two side turrets, has sgraffito work and openings with sculptural decoration, including capitals by Eusebi Arnau depicting very contemporary subjects, such as the cyclist beside the main door. The highly ornamental decoration of the interior has almost all been lost except for the foyer, decorated with sgraffito work and tiles, and the courtyard with an open staircase in the purest style of the medieval mansions of Barcelona.
Diagonal, 332. Returning to the Diagonal and going east towards Plaça de les Glòries we find, at the corner of Carrer Sicilia, the , an original building of rounded forms built in 1924 by Josep Maria Jujol i Gibert, a student of Gaudí. Many specialists consider this house as the last Modernista work in Barcelona, but the influence of new avant-garde and rationalist trends is evident. Jujol did an admirable job of using a small site to design maisonettes connected by interior spiral stairs.
Going up Carrer Sicilia and turning right at Carrer Mallorca. We reach the . (Basilica of the Holy Family). Gaudí was a unique architect in his time, and one of the few in the history of architecture to have had a commission that lasted a lifetime -in fact, a commission that outlived him. The Sagrada Família is a work of great brilliance and ambition and of giant aspirations.
End of the tour.
End of the tour.
