|
Art Nouveau in
CAMPRODON
|
[Français]
[Castellano] [Català] |
|
|
Buildings:
Hotel Rigat
Cinema Rigat
Can Surís (Casa de les
Monges)
Can Brandia Can Blanch
La Palanca or Can Vila
Can Roig
Can Cabot
Pastisseries Antiga Casa Sala
and
Can Travessa |
|
Walking through Art Nouveau in
Camprodon |
|
General information about Camprodon:
Interesting places, Communications,
Restaurants, Hotels, Entertainment and links |
|
Links to
other web sites on Art Nouveau in Camprodon |
|
Bibliography
on Camprodon |
|
Other places
with interesting Art Nouveau works |
|
|
 |
Built in 1914, the Hotel Rigat is still
open and serving guests as it did when it was constructed and contributes both
to the natural beauty of the neighbourhood and to the development of the tourist
industry on which much of the town depends.
It was designed by the architect Juli Mari Fossas i Martinez in a late
Modernisme style (Catalan Art Nouveau) with historical details
that simultaneously contrast with and graciously complement the surroundings.
The neighbouring Cinema Rigat, discussed further below, helps balance the
architecture styles.
The hotel comprises a main level and three floors; the
third floor is in the form of an attic, with a central body that
cuts the sloping tile roof and gives it a special physiognomy.
The windows on
the two central floors have balconies with wrought iron handrails infused with
typical Catalan Art Nouveau designs, somewhat influenced by the Sezession movement in
Austria.
Although this is a working hotel, you can tour the grounds and the
sensibly modified interior.
|
|
|
The three-story Cinema Rigat was
constructed around 1914 and was designed by architect Juli Mari Fosses i
Martinez, who also designed the Hotel Rigat, above.
It is in the late Modernisme style, and its imaginative facade recalls the early designs of
Puig i
Cadafalch. Surprisingly, the windows on each floor are different: voussoired
arches on the ground floor, square windows on the second, and a gallery of
Romanesque arches on the third. The ground floor windows are, furthermore,
covered with some tiled roof canopies, with that of the balcony being the
largest. The handrail is wooden.
Unfortunately, only the exterior may be
observed.
|
|
|
Can Surís or Casa de las Monges (House
of the Nuns)
Address: Carrer València, 44
Camprodon
(Ripollès) |
This one-story house is an interesting
construction of three facades in a poor state of conservation (though now
undergoing restoration). The front facade opens out onto the town’s main
thoroughfare, the rear facade looks out over the river, and the side borders a
narrow, less interesting street.
It was built in the early twentieth century by
architect Josep Renom i Costa in a melange of Modernisme, historicista, and
neo-Baroque styles. The house is almost entirely of stone, and some decorative
ceramic tiles that break the uniformity of the stone and run along the main
façade. The ground floor features a large window with an arch of stone
supported by four stone columns; this window is also accented by the green
ceramic tiles that run across the front of the building. Upstairs are five
windows, three with balconies with wrought iron handrails. The middle and most
important window/balcony encompasses the three central windows/openings.
The
rear façade reveals the opposite of the front: a variation of depths with a
strongly convex central part and two
asymmetric lateral wings. The lowest part has three openings that allow light
and ventilation into the basement, protected with highly decorative wrought iron
grilles.
As Can Surís is a private home, only the exterior may be observed.
|
|
|
This house dates from the beginning of the twentieth
century, although it was redesigned from 1914-1915.
No information has come down to us about either the
architect who built it or the architect who oversaw the
later modifications.
This interesting building has a ground floor and three
upper floors, currently under restoration.
The ground floor is not very remarkable, but the first
floor has a central platform partially covered by a tile
roof and partially by a balcony with a wooden railing
that opens onto the central opening of the second floor.
The third floor has a gallery on each side of a unique
centerpiece with one large center window and two lateral
windows that contrast markedly with the gallery.
This architectural assemblage is crowned with a
neo-Baroque pediment with decorative wall mouldings.
The galleries are covered by tiled roofs supported
by rafters typical of mountainside architecture.
|
|
|
The building on a corner of the most
commercial street in town, Can Blanch was designed by an unknown architect.
It
has an eclectic style that predates Modernisme and has been losing some of its
most interesting characteristics - most recently, the front door - but on the corner
is preserved the original wooden balcony, crowned with a ceramic emblem in which
one can find a pre-modernist feature.
|
 |
Built at the beginning of the twentieth
century, this building was for years Telefònica’s town headquarters, hence its
popular nickname: Telèfons.
Antoni Coll i Fort designed it in a
Modernista
style, and it consists of a ground floor and three upper floors, the first of
which has, at an angle, a platform with a view topped by a balcony—an assemblage
that contrasts notably with the rest of the building and could be considered the
most characteristically modernista part of the structure.
The openings on the
first and second floors have balconies with wrought-iron railings, unlike the
third floor, which sports only windows. The crown of the building’s corner
angle unites the two facades in a uniquely-spaced fashion.
As is typical of
mountain town constructions, the building is covered with a tile roof that ends
in rafters of considerable width.
Only the exterior is of any architectural
interest.
|
|
Can Roig
Address:
Carrer Freixenet, 21 (On the corner of C/. Mossèn Cinto)
Camprodon
(Ripollès) |
An impressive house, with dimensions and
characteristics that in earlier times would have qualified it as a palace, Can
Roig was built between 1900 and 1901, though it is now in a lamentable state of
ruin.
Architect Simó Cordomí i Carrera planned a grandiose building combining
Modernisme and its neo-Gothic variant, with a basic style including a square
main tower recalling some of the earliest constructions of
Puig i Cadafalch.
The front door is today missing, but it was a heavily ornamented Gothic affair,
covered by a sort of loggia of Romanesque arches crowned by crenulations. An
element of the rich exterior decoration is still visible, with sculptured stone
pieces that allow one to imagine the magnificence that once have must attached
to the entire building.
The interior is completely in ruins, given that the
majority of the roof tiles have collapsed inward.
|
|
|
This house was built between 1900 and
1905 by the prestigious architect
Enric Sagnier i Villavecchia.
It consists of
a single-family chalet in the traditional
Modernista style comprised of a ground
floor, upstairs, and loft areas. The façade, a simple structure without
balconies but with arched openings, gently breaks the line of lofts with three
narrow openings allowing light and ventilation.
The roof is elegant, prolonged
by an extended cornice sustained by rafters and wooden supports.
Can Cabot is a
private home; only the exterior can be viewed.
|
|
|
This small business dedicated to
pastries sports Modernista decoration. Its architect, or perhaps only
decorator, was Permanyer.
Another bakery with
Modernista décor.
|
We are grateful for the cooperation of the Ajuntament (Town Council) of
Camprodon.
Translation to English by Catherine Phillips Crowe.
|
