Josep Puig i Cadafalch: An Architect’s Vision

Based on the number of buildings and projects by Josep Puig i Cadafalch in Barcelona, he is the city’s most prolific Modernista architect, and yet he is often overshadowed by his contemporaries, Antoni Gaudí and Lluís Domènech i Montaner. But not only did he have a strong impact on the architecture of the region, Puig i Cadafalch was an art historian and a politician. 

In 1917 he became president of the Mancomunitat de Catalunya (Commonwealth of Catalunya). And a decade before, in 1907, the Barcelona Museums Board was set up under his leadership—he took charge of the organization of the library of the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC), applying the international rules for the classification of material. In his many roles, Puig i Cadafalch stressed the importance of Catalan art and fought to make his culture more resilient. 

Living at a time when his country was aware of its past but open to innovative advancements allowed Puig i Cadafalch to thrive as an architect while staying true to his values. He involved Catalan nationalist symbols in much of his work and showed an elevated level of craftsmanship influenced by the Industrial Revolution. The amalgam of old and new that he advocated made him a major part of the Modernisme movement.

Catalan Modernisme is one of Barcelona’s most defining features. It goes beyond architecture, expanding into a cultural movement championed by Catalan intellectuals, artists and writers who believed a cultural revamp of Catalunya was the only way to get their society on par with its European neighbors. This movement fed off the previous Renaixença (Catalan Renaissance), an early 19th-century romantic revivalist movement which, like most other Romantic movements, was noted for its admiration of the Middle Ages. The Middle Ages was the golden age of Catalunya and, nostalgic for past glory days, Puig i Cadafalch relied heavily on architectural details from that time such as Gothic arches, spires, towers and sculptures cut from stone with precision. Instead of the archetypal gargoyles peering out from a building’s sides, though, he used more earthly figures such as fish, other animals and people that still stretched out from the walls with their mouths open in typical fashion. 

Catalunya’s romantic renaissance recovered the distinctive personality of Catalan art, along with the image of Sant Jordi. Less than a decade later, Modernista architects were using the patron saint of the Crown of Aragon and the dragon he slayed as a theme throughout their work. The legend of Sant Jordi represents bravery in the face of opposition and standing firm to defeat fear and save the future of a civilization, and Puig i Cadafalch especially exploited it as inspiration for his designs.

In terms of architecture, Catalan Modernisme was also characterized by organic forms derived from nature, experimentation with different mediums and materials, vibrant color, elements of Islamic and Gothic architecture and curved rather than straight lines. Although Puig i Cadafalch took some liberties with his own style, all the various influences of the time led him to create the arresting structures that can still be admired throughout Barcelona today.

Casa Martí

At 28-years-old, Puig i Cadafalch was commissioned by the in-laws of textile magnate Francesc Vilumara to complete his first major project in Barcelona. Casa Martí is a brick building with large pointed arches lining the street, containing simple stained glass windows—more northern European than Catalan in appearance. Nestled on the narrow Carrer de Montsió just off Portal de l’Àngel, views of this house are more obscured. Don’t miss the stone sculptures by Eusebi Arnau, the wrought ironwork of Manuel Ballarín, including the slinky steel dragons holding up lanterns over the two side entrances of the main facade, and Josep Llimona’s statue of Sant Josep on the corner. Below the statue is another reference to the Modernista theme of Sant Jordi. Here the hero seems to be tangled up in the scaly body of the dragon, but he has managed to jab his sword straight down the beast’s throat. 

Housed on the ground floor of Casa Martí is Els Quatre Gats, opened on June 12, 1897, by Pere Romeu and painters Santiago Rusiñol, Ramon Casas and Miquel Utrillo. The cafe had a strong resemblance to the Le Chat Noir cabaret in Paris and quickly became a regular meeting point for the artistic, ideological and cultural vanguard of the city. Participants included such illustrious figures as Gaudí, Isidre Nonell, Enric Granados and a 17-year-old Picasso, who had just moved to the Catalan capital and would hold his first solo exhibition in the restaurant in 1899. 

Els Quatre Gats was not entirely about reflection and thought, however. As Santiago Rusiñol would say, the most important thing in life is to “feed the spirit.” Pere Romeu reflected this in his careful preparation of the food he served. Only after his clients were full and happy would he sit down with them to discuss how to save the world. The restaurant is still open to the public and contains much of its original decoration.

Casa Amatller

Casa Amatller sits on Passeig de Gràcia between Gaudí’s Casa Batlló and Domènech i Montaner’s Casa Lleó Morera, on the mansana de la discòrdia (block of discord) so-named because it features buildings in sharply contrasting styles. Chocolate manufacturer Antoni Amatller i Costa commissioned Puig i Cadafalch to transform an existing building into a residence for his family. From 1898 to 1900, Puig i Cadafalch worked to make what was essentially a block of flats appear to be a single urban Gothic palace. 

Under the architect’s supervision, Casa Amatller’s facade was demolished and rebuilt with a variety of colors and decorative sculptural iconography. There are allusions to the family name such as flowering almond tree branches twisted into capital A’s, traditional references to Sant Jordi and the dragon, and around the three balcony doors one of Puig i Cadafalch’s hired artists painted an allegorical portrait of Antoni Amatller using symbols to depict the three fields that best defined him: industry, the arts (especially photography) and his collection of archaeological glass. Puig i Cadafalch also altered the distribution of the main floor, refurbished the staircase, added an electric lift to the building and installed a rotating platform for the owner’s automobile.

The renovation of Casa Amatller again defied building criteria established in the Cerdà Plan. Puig i Cadafalch went against the main classicist rules of symmetry and regularity; the singular stair-like top that crowns the building and integrates the photographic study built on the roof surpassed the 22-meter height limit of city structures; and he added the concept of color as a prominent feature in a sea of grayscale urban surroundings. With one house, he redefined a district rooted in uniformity and brought Modernisme to the Eixample. 

Casa de les Punxes

Casa Terradas, nicknamed Casa de les Punxes (House of Spires) was built between 1903 and 1905, for the three daughters of Bartomeu Terradas i Mont. The Terradas family was part of the proud bourgeoisie around the turn of the 20th century, having acquired its wealth from the textile industry. When the father died, he named his son as heir, but left a small monetary fortune to the women of the family as well. This inheritance helped finance the construction of Casa de les Punxes.

The brother commissioned his friend Josep Puig i Cadafalch to design a home for his sisters, Àngela, Josefa and Rosa. The architect envisioned three separate houses seamlessly blended together to look like one massive medieval castle along the lines of the Wagner-inspired fashion of northern Europe. It was decided that they would buy the entire block where Casa de les Punxes sits today in order to accommodate Puig i Cadafalch’s grandiose idea. This location—six corners coinciding with the intersection of the three surrounding streets, Avinguda Diagonal, Carrer del Rosselló and Carrer del Bruc—was irregular since Ildefons Cerdà’s plan for the gridded neighborhood of Eixample was already underway, and Puig i Cadafalch had to adapt the layout of the building to fit the unusual shape of the land.

The two main facades of the building that face Passeig de Gràcia and Avinguda Diagonal (where the most important members of society took their walks) are ornately decorated, with nature scenes depicted in three materials—wrought iron, stone and stained glass—while the other facades are plainer. The less striking facade along Carrer del Rosselló does have a ceramic-tiled panel of Sant Jordi that draws attention, however. Underneath the picture of Sant Jordi in his armor, standing triumphantly over the dragon, is the phrase “Sant Patró de Catalunya, torneu-nos la llibertat” (Patron saint of Catalunya, give us back our freedom), and along the border Puig i Cadafalch sculpted a portrait of himself.

While most Modernista architects avoided straight lines, Puig i Cadafalch focused on the triangle in his design of Casa de les Punxes. Only the towers on the edges of the main facades are curved. He also chose to show off his innovative construction techniques adopted from the Industrial Revolution inside the houses. Iron columns supporting the weight of the building are exposed on the ground floor and in the attic, and sleek poles slice through the middle of the six towers, revealing the basic framework of the building as well as providing an aesthetic that you won’t find in any other Modernista architect’s work. Because of his occasional deviations from the defining characteristics of Modernisme, some consider Casa de les Punxes the last house of Modernisme and the first of Noucentisme.

Casa de les Punxes was opened to the public in August 2016 for the first time in 110 years, however, it was closed during the pandemic and has not reopened. There is now a coworking space located on the ground floor which, unfortunately, is the only space open to the public.

Les Quatre Columnes

It may be hard to imagine the view from the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya and the magic fountains without the iconic columns that stand between them, but they have actually only been there since 2010. Originally designed by Puig i Cadafalch and erected in 1919, the columns symbolized the four stripes of the Catalan senyera (flag). But less than ten years later they were destroyed during Primo de Rivera's dictatorship in a campaign to eradicate all public Catalanist symbols before the 1929 Universal Exposition. The columns you see today were erected in 2010 very close to the original site using Puig i Cadafalch's original plans.

Originally published May 2017, updated January 24, 2023.