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 temples of Sant Pere, Sant Miquel and Santa María, which originally formed the Paleolithic "cathedral" in Egara, have undergone multiple stages of construction that have left their mark in a variety of styles, -from late Roman to Gothic styles- and artistic disciplines. It is, therefore, a monument unique to Catalonia.
The first building is a paleochristian complex that served as the bishopric of Egara, of which there are still vestiges of the temples of Santa Maria and Sant Miquel. The fact that there are three churches has historically been interpreted as a "copy" of the ancient Byzantine model -two churches and a baptistery- but after recent excavations (2000-2007), scholars think that the church of Sant Miquel was not used as a baptistery, but rather that it had a funerary use. Therefore, we find ourselves in a paleochristian cathedral, set out as a miniature city with several outbuildings and temples.
The second stage of construction dates back to the ninth and tenth centuries following the Christian conquest of the territory dominated by the Muslims. Therefore, the style is Pre-Romanesque; there are many signs of this era in the churches that were eventually finished in the third and final stage, by this time the Romanesque (11th-12th centuries).
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.
Behind the church of Sant Pere Nolasc, in the Plaça Castella in Barcelona, there are three simple buildings with straight angles and pure shapes. They form the Dispensari Central Antituberculós (Central Antituberculosis Clinic), the first complex exclusively dedicated to the treatment of tuberculosis in Catalonia and one of the finest examples of rationalist architecture in the country. The architects responsible for the project, Josep Lluis Sert, Joan Baptista Subirana and Josep Torres Clave, members of GATCPAC - were not looking to design an ostentatious building, rather the best technical solution for constructing a health complex.
The clinic is a set of three four-story concrete buildings with a raised floor in the form of a right angle or 'L'. The complex's construction, between 1934 and 1937, helped to promote a particularly dense urban area.
Inspired by the rationalist architecture movement that promoted functionality and simplicity, the architects took into consideration the criterion of Dr. Louis Sayé when building the compound: structures needed to allow for proper ventilation and air circulation as well as good sunlight for the treatment of patients. And this was achieved, although the trio of architects had to fight certain bylaws in the process.
The pavilion is a one floor, horizontal structure resting on eight steel pillars that support the weight of the flat roof. There is no enclosed space, nor doors, and there is almost no separation between the interior and exterior.Pure and simple geometry dominate the building.
Glass walls, green marble, golden onyx from the Atlas Mountains, Roman travertine, cement, steel, chrome and water were the 'ingredients' used by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe to design a building with remarkably austere but expressive qualities.
This singular structure was built for the Universal Expo of 1929 in Barcelona. Mies Van der Rohe's German Pavilion was a "modern coup" amid the sumptuous Noucentisme buildings that defined the development of Montjuic.
Despite being conceived as an ephemeral building (it was dismantled once the Expo was over), it existed long enough to become a benchmark of the rationalist architecture movement (during the 1920s and 1930s ). So much so that in 1954, on the 25th anniversary of the exhibition, the architect Oriol Bohigas pushed for the pavilion's reconstruction. This became a reality after more than 30 years, in 1986.
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.
