Images
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The villa today
Joan Ribera
The villa in 1904
Archive Luigi
The villa in ruins (before 1971)
Collection Josep Casals
The plant plans:
Roger Orriols
Elevation
plan:
Roger Orriols
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Basic information:
Location: Forest trail to Serra del Catllaràs to some
12 Km. of the centre of La Pobla de Lillet (Berguedà).
Qualification: xxxxx
(1 on 5)
Present condition: Façades and interior:
Correct,
but with changes modifying the design of Gaudí.
How to go to:
By car: The chalet is found to 139 Km. of Barcelona and 78 of
Manresa, by the C-16, when arrived to Guardiola de Bergadà, take the
road B-402 in direction to La Pobla de Lillet. Arriving at the Km. 9
there is a deviation on the right with the indication of Santuari de
Falgars, from here a trail indicated of 6 Km should be caught
carrying to the villa. With good weather the travel can be done by
car although is recommended a vehicle all wheel car. A good
alternative is to go on foot - in an hour and a half - from La Pobla
de Lillet (Neighborhood of Coromines) following a trail signaled
with long and yellow marks.
By Bus: Through the Company
Alsina Graells
phone + 34 93 265 65 92. Barcelona - Manresa - Berga - La Pobla de
Lillet. Or Company Manel Mir Vila phone + 34 972 70 30 12. Ripoll -Campdevànol
- La Pobla de Lillet. The buses do not arrive to the villa, from La
Pobla de Lillet continue on foot or by car (better an all wheel
car).
By train:
RENFE,
Barcelona-Ripoll or Campdevànol. From there to La Pobla de Lillet by
bus with the Company Manel Mir Vila (Tel. + 34 972 70 30 12).
Ripoll-Campdevànol-La Pobla de Lillet. From there continue on foot
or by car.
Visits: The building is at present a holiday camp and it is
totally adapted to that function.
Information: Telephone: + 34 93 823 61 46 - email:
tur.lillet@diba.es
Tourism Office: Park Xesco Boix, s/n
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History:
A
prior explanation:
The knowledge that the Catllaràs Villa is a work of
Gaudí, is recent. This original construction
passed a long period in which it was all ignored on the identity of its
author.
Still today we continue without no known document to prove this. The first
chronologies of Gaudí works did not include the Catllaràs Villa. The first
documented reference, is the report published by the architect A.
Viladevall in the magazine "Cortijos
y Rascacielos" published in Madrid (nº 35 of 05-06-1946). This
architect refers to a conversation with Domènech Sugranyes Gras
(collaborator of Gaudí in the Sagrada Família) in which he said that Gaudí
explained him in a conversation his responsibility to build the Villa.
At present the responsibility of Gaudí is generally accepted, even by
specialists as the architect Joan Bassegoda Nonell Teacher assigned to the
Gaudí Chair.
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The
origin:
The power needs for the cement production in the new factory of the Clot
del Moro (1901-1904) built by the architect Rafael Guastavino for the
company Asland of Eusebi Güell i Bacigalupi (Count of Güell), are the
origin of the project of this villa that Güell (sponsor of Gaudí)
entrusted him probably around the year 1901.
Really, the coal Catllaràs mines were very far from the factory of the
Clot del Moro to which its production went destined and of any inhabited
place. This was the reason to build a housing for the technicians and
another personnel working in it.
To raise the construction, a place called "Els Prats" was chosen, near the
mines and in a natural environment surrounded by fields, without forest,
allowing a magnificent vision on an environment of splendid landscapes.
The
construction:
It was started in the year 1902 and developed in two phases keeping in
mind the adverse climatic conditions, with very hard winters. By this
reason, during the first phase the structure was built, and also the
exterior closings, the central chimney and a part of the visors of the
windows corresponding to the ground floor. Subsequently and in a second
phase, the works were completed supposedly in the year 1903.
The
abandonment:
After a period of intense productive activity in the Catllaràs mines, in
the year 1932 the chalet was transferred to La Pobla de Lillet City Hall.
During a period of hardly political instability and of stop of the
economic activity, aggravated in the artistic field by the triumph of the
Noucentisme that defended a very different artistic
conception and aesthetics concepts radically faced to the Modernism (Catalan Art Nouveau) and
Gaudí, the villa lived a progressive deterioration, despite some
interventions (see further down "The alterations")
devoted to adapt the building to new applications more than to assure a
true reconstruction.
This situation was aggravated as a result of the civil war and the
post-war period that left the villa in an almost ruinous state.
The
alterations:
Already in the year 1907, the chalet suffers the first alterations
consisting in a change of the slope of the visors of the windows and in
the cement recover of the initially river stones base cover.
Again we notice new alterations in the year 1940 because the building was
in a very bad conditions.
From 1971, the villa suffered new alterations, to adapt it to the new
function as a holiday camp, altering much more its initial look.
The staircase who was the central element of the
façade, duly theoretically to practice reasons, was substituted by
another metallic stair without any relation with the original project.
Also the initial covering of the facade was substituted by
artificial slate.
Likewise the interior suffered important
alterations.
Description:
Here we
will develop a summary on the original building designed by Gaudí, because
the construction in its present state, has lost many of its interesting
characteristics.
Generalities:
It was a matter of a building of three plants with two dwellings by plant
(total six), with a maximum height of 10 meters. The structure has form of
barrel vault with closed sides forming the lateral façades with some
openings with two projecting, one in each side, in the shape of the attic to lodge the toilets.
The
cover and the chimneys:
The cover is at the same time roof and façade and inside this dual
function can be considered for the openings so much as windows or
skylights.
Initially the base was covered by river stones but subsequently it was
recovered with cement.
This cover was crowned by a culmination also decorated with river stones.
The two chimneys of the ensemble one is emerging from the centre of
the roof - that chimney collected the smoke of six stoves located in each
of the three floors of the building -, the other chimney following the
vertical wall closing the vault, was only to evacuate the smoke of a room
of the ground floor
It is to remark the perfect assemblage among the cover and the staircase.
The
staircase:
One of the most interesting elements of the house was the staircase today
destroyed.
This staircase was, as the present one, located in the
south-western facade, besides its function as element of communication
among the floors of the building, it contended inside its body the following
elements: in the ground floor two doors to the dwellings, two
laundries, two baths and a coal bunker. In the first floor also the two
doors to the dwellings, two baths and a junk room. Therefore, this staircase presented an interesting plurifunctionality and
contended essential elements for the life at the interior of the building.
The
interior:
The interior of the villa
was characterized for an almost Spartan simplicity, eliminating all the
superfluous thing, the useless spaces and maximizing the comfort.
Each one
of the three plants of the villa had two apartments with
direct access to the staircase, in the ground floor the kitchens and dining rooms
were found besides.
Due to the structure of the building, the useful
surface of each plant went reduced from the ground floor to the attic.
The
apartments had interior divisions, less in the upper plant, in which each
apartment had a single room (see plans).
The comfort criteria
were not only organised by the available space, but also by other functional aspects
to attribute the apartments by professional
categories. Thus, the personnel of maintenance and service was situated in
the ground floor, therefore in an area in direct contact with the floor,
with the worst thermal isolation and with the eventual smells of the
kitchens and dining rooms. The executive and technician personnel with his families
was situated in the intermediate plant, in a zone with better isolation and protected of the outside by the upper and lower plants that acted as
air chambers. The third level, is supposed to lodge the subordinate personnel
or used as space of alternative uses.
Conclusion:
In opinion of Joan Bassegoda, Gaudí achieve in that building a perfect
symbiosis between the aesthetics en the functionality.
This symbiosis, is one of the more impressive and fascinating aspects of
this building and in general terms of his architecture.
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