The Benedictine Abbey of Sant Quirze stands in the old county of Empúries. Isolated from the population, the building survived within the Albera Natural Area of National Interest. After a long process of restoration, Sant Quirze still conveys what its builders set down in the 10th century, with solid stone architecture in the Romanesque style bearing influences from Roussillon and Lombard decoration.
The monastery church is the best preserved part of the architectural complex. Its construction is very austere and ornamentation is scarce. Only the main apse is decorated: a high podium holds 5 small arches supported by semi-columns with plain capitals. But one must focus one’s view on the south apse of the Church. it was here that, during the restoration in 2006, the remains of wall paintings were discovered. Even though they are in a state of degradation, a mandorla, two angels, the sun and the moon have been discerned.
Only a part of the cloister has been preserved but, given that it is a very primitive (10th century) construction, it has great value. From here one can reach a large chamber, which could have been the refectory or the dormitory, and the Abbot's Palace. The monastery, fortified in the 14th century, retains a defence tower and the remains of the ramparts.
Outside the monastery enclosure there is the the parish church of Santa Maria, dating from the 12th century, open to the inhabitants of the area.
The ‘cradle’ of Catalonia. This is how the monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll is known and no wonder. Founded by Comte Guifré el Pelós (Count Wilfred the Hairy) in the year 879, under the direction of the Abbot Oliba, it became a major religious and cultural centre, with a large and majestic Romanesque church and a scriptorium with great literary production, on a level with other abbeys in Europe during this period
The monastery’s 12th century portalada is the most outstanding feature of the complex. This doorway that welcomed the faithful and curious, is one of the great sculptures of European Romanesque. It is completely sculpted with scenes from the Old Testament and allegories. This is why it became known as "the Bible of stone". Its monumentality bears witness to Ripoll’s years of splendor. It is with good reason that for many years the monastery was also the pantheon of the counts of Besalú and Girona.
The building underwent several stages of enlargement and reconstruction due to the lack of space, fires, an earthquake and plunder.In 1886, the Bishop of Vic, Josep Morgades, commissioned the reconstruction of the monastery to the architect Elies Rogent. Ripoll recovered the church and the cloister of the 11th century monastery with a Romanesque Revival interpretation.
Today, you can visit Santa Maria de Ripoll and a Visitors’ Information Centre has been opened as well as a permanent exhibition focusing on the scriptorium, in which its importance is explained.
The history of Sant Feliu de Guíxols can be summarised based on this Benedictine monastery, which combines architectural styles from the 5th to the 18th century. The first monastery built here on top of former Roman structures dates back to the 10th century and retains the Porta Ferrada, which was integrated as a portico entrance. Later, other elements and constructions were incorporated, including the Gothic church and the new convent from the 18th century.
Today you can visit part of the building along with the Torre del Fum" (Smoke Tower) and the "Torre del Corn" (The Horn tower), located on each side of the church. In its day, these acted as defense towers. From the first of them, smoke signals were emitted using wet straw. From the second, a shell horn was sounded in times of danger.
The municipality of Sant Feliu de Guixols was established and grew up around the monastic complex. For this reason, this significant building was chosen to house the Museu d’Història de la Ciutat, the town’s history museum along with the permanent exhibition on health and the rural doctor.
Today, the history of the monastery is still being written. And in the rooms of the old Palau de l’Abat (Abbot's Palace) you will now find the Espai Carmen Thyssen dedicated to temporary exhibitions.
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).
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.
