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Who says that a hospital has to be white and devoid of all decoration? Thanks to the legacy of the banker Pau Gil, in 1902 the modernist architect, Lluís Domènech i Montaner, planned a hospital full of beauty, rich in ornamentation, colour and vegetation.
It is a monumental complex consisting of 27 red brick pavilions located on the border between the districts of Eixample and Guinardó. It is a true hospital city where, surrounded by gardens, medical and general treatments are provided, and where apartments and a church are located. Everything is connected via a 2 km underground passage systemthat allows patients to move about without going outside.
The project by Domènech i Montaner, that would be finished by his son in 1930, is a completely innovative architectural and urban conceptin terms of the typical 20th century hospital. The hospital separated services to avoid contagion and favoured natural light and open spaces to freshen the air and provide a more pleasing environment for the patients .
After more than 80 years of healthcare activity, the hospital was moved to new buildings in 2009. Once vacated and renovated, Domènech i Montaner's modernist pavilions became the home of other institutions.
The Basílica Expiatòria de la Sagrada Família (Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Sagrada Familia) is one of the most remarkable examples of Catalan ‘modernisme’ (Art Nouveau) and has become a symbol of Barcelona. Undoubtedly it is the unfinished monument that attracts most visitors in the world. Moreover, Antoni Gaudí poured all his efforts and knowledge into the project right up until his death, although he only saw completion of the crypt, the apse and the façade of the Nativity with one of the bell towers. Together, these areas were declared World Heritage Site in 2005.
Construction of the Sagrada Familia began in 1882 with the crypt located under the apse, according to a preliminary neo-Gothic design. When the commission was handed over to Gaudí, he completely changed the design and adapted the project to his naturalist ideals. One of the treasures of the crypt is the Roman-style mosaics on the floor. Another feature that cannot be missed is the framed altarpiece dedicated to the Holy Family by the sculptor Josep Llimona. And it is precisely in this intimate and mystic setting that Antoni Gaudí is buried, specifically in the chapel of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Once the crypt and apse were finished, Gaudí started on a more ambitious and complex project based on detailed symbolism and great formal construction innovations based on the parabolic arch. This led to the Nativity façade. According to Gaudí: "If instead of creating this decorated, ornate and bombastic façade, I had begun with the Passion, hard, bare and bone-like; people would have expressed disapproval". Thus he turned the façade into a detailed stone book relating the episodes of Jesus’s childhood.
After Gaudí’s death, the building went through decades of slow evolution. With the revival of interest in the work of Gaudí, the number of visitors has greatly increased in recent years and construction work on the temple has advanced quickly, following the models and notes left by the master. The interior of the nave of the church is a new attraction and it is hoped that in 2026 the building of Gaudí’s dreams will be completed.
Eusebi Güell, faithful defender of the works of Antoni Gaudí, commissioned the architect to design a church for the textile village that he had constructed in Santa Coloma de Cervelló, close to Barcelona.
Construction didn't begin until the end of 1908, two years after its commission. Moreover, Gaudí abandoned the project in 1914 and work was suspended indefinitely in 1916, at which point only the crypt was built.
But for Antoni Gaudí, both the project and the construction of the crypt in Colònia Güell were a testing laboratory, where he experimented with architectural solutions and new structural techniques that he later used in the Sagrada Família. He made bold attempts, using brick and stone that pushed the limits of the construction of architectural structures, such as the parabolic arches and the sloping walls and columns.
Is it possible to feel like a bourgeois of the early 20th century by visiting a Romanesque monastery? Sant Benet de Bages shows how heritage adapts to new uses over time. In this case, a medieval monastery that became the summer residence of Ramon Casas’s family and finally the tourist and cultural centre that it is today.
The first church (pre-Romanesque) was consecrated in 972 with a community of twelve monks. However, it was not until the 12th century that the abbey would experience its period of splendor, with the construction of a new church and the cloister. The latter of these is the true Romanesque star of the group. Between the pillars there are semi-circular arches that rest on double columns with sculpted capitals, all of them original.
As a result of the confiscation by Mendizábal, the monastery was abandoned. It was in the year 1907, that Elisa Carbó i Ferrer, mother of the painter Ramon Casas, bought the land of Sant Benet and adapted the quarters of the monastic community to create a residence. The renovation was designed by another illustrious name: Josep Puig i Cadafalch. Particularly outstanding is the modernista (Art Nouveau) terrace, which occupies part of the old cells of the monks.
Today, through the use of new technologies, the visitor can delve into the building’s monastic history and modernista past. Moreover, in 2007 in the surroundings of the monastery, a complex known as Món Sant Benet was opened, which in addition to disseminating heritage, also focuses on gastronomy and the landscape.
The group comprising the Theatre-Museum with the dome and the Torre Galatea (with its façade decorated with manequins, eggs and loaves of crusty bread) is the most emblematic icon of Figueres’ urban landscape.The building itself is considered to be the world's largest surrealist object. But, at the same time, in its interior it houses many masterpieces by Salvador Dalí.
The Theatre-Museum, built on the remains of the former Figueres Theatre, was designed and planned by Dalí himself as his great personal project. Its collection of paintings enables the visitor to go on an artistic tour, starting with the painter’s early work (The Smiling Venus and Port Alguer). Besides this and most importantly, the Museum covers the explosion of surrealism with emblematic works such as the Spectre of Sex-Appeal, Leda Atomica, The Basket of Bread and Galatea of the Spheres.
Also of particular interest is a set of works that Dalí created specifically for his own Museum, such as the Mae West Room, the Wind Palace gallery, the Rainy Cadillac and the painting Gala Nude Watching the Sea which at 18 metres distance appears as President Lincoln.
In 1988 the Loggias Room exhibition area was added, showing the later work of Salvador Dalí, based on scientific experimentation and the study of classical painting.
The Teatre-Museu Dalí in Figueres together with the Castell Gala Dalí de Púbol and the Casa-Museu Salvador Dalí in Portlligat, make up the Dalí triangle of Empordà which enables visitors to immerse themselves in the life and work of one of Catalonia’s most international painters.
In the middle of Montjuïc, in Barcelona, under the shade of the trees, the white volumes of the Fundació Joan Miró do not go unnoticed. In its interior, it holds more than 14,000 pieces by the surrealist painter, including paintings, sculptures, ceramics and tapestries. One of the most important aspects of the Fundació is that it preserves nearly all Joan Miró’s preparatory sketches, with more than 8,000 drawings, invaluable material for understanding the work of the artist.
The collection was originally created with a donation from Joan Miró himself and has since grown with donations from family, friends and collectors.
Through the Foundation’s collection, you can take a journey through the artistic life of Miró. Starting with his early paintings with their clear influence of Impressionism, Fauvism and French Cubism (Chapel of Sant Joan d'Horta and Portrait of a Young Girl). Progressing on to his fully surrealist phase (The Bottle of Wine) and his well-known collages (Homage to Prats). And ending with his works on the Civil War (Man and Woman in Front of a Pile of Excrement) and his paintings of the constellations.
But the museum is not only notable for the work it houses but also for its architectural and museological concepts. Miró wanted to open a foundation that would look to the future, that would not become a temple of collectors' objects but rather a place of discovery and debate. And with this objective, he asked the architect Josep Lluís Sert to construct a building with its own personality. The result is a piece of architecture that serves as the perfect showcase for the work of the artist.
A former fisherman's hut in Portlligat, Salvador Dalí moved here in 1930 and continued to work here until 1982. Since its initial construction, the painter began acquiring other similar huts and, over forty years, defined what would be the home as it is today, considered by some as "a true biological structure".
The building, designed by Dalí and Gala, is a labyrinthine structure organised around the so-called "Saló de l'Óssa" (Hall of the Bear). From this central area, the home spreads out through a succession of small rooms connected by corridors, small level changes and culs-de-sac. The rooms have windows of different shapes and sizes but with one common denominator: they frame the Portlligat bay, a place that is a recurring theme in Dalí's work.
The home, which the writer Josep Pla described as "surprising, extraordinary and never seen before" was a refuge where Dalí led "a life of asceticism and isolation" after living for many years in Paris.
In 1982, after Gala's death, Dalí did not return to Portlligat. With the painter's death (1989), in 1994 the house became a small museum areaadapted by the architects Oriol Clos i Costa and José Ramos Illán. Together with the Castell Gala Dalí de Púbol and the Teatre-Museu Dalí in Figueres, make up the Dalí triangle of Empordà
Built between 1932 and 1936 in the district of Sant Andreu in Barcelona, Casa Bloc is a paradigmatic example of the first Rationalist architecture in Catalonia. It was designed by Josep Lluís Sert (1902-1983), Josep Torres Clave (1906-1939) and Joan Baptista Subirana (1904-1978), members of GATCPAC (Group of Catalan Architects and Technicians for the Progress of Contemporary Architecture). It is a group that, along with the Government of Catalonia, promoted the introduction of modern architecture to the country in the early 1930s.
During the Second Republic, it was an innovative social project integrated into the urban environment and featured functional housing conceived as standardised accommodation for workers. A 'new' architecture that defined the modern urban morphology, typical of the twentieth century, in contrast to the Eixample in the nineteenth century.
Today you can visit the house 1/11 of the Casa Bloc, converted into an apartment-museum run by the Design Museum of Barcelona. The museum project has restored the original structure and appearance of the home, and presents it as its creators had intended.
