Moderniste Barcelona

Moderniste Barcelona

Characterized by intense ornamentation and natural or organic lines and forms, Modernisme (Art Nouveau) swept Europe between 1880 and 1914, proliferating wildly in Barcelona. Beginning with the city's Universal Exposition of 1888, the playful Catalan artistic impulse (evidenced in the works of Gaudí, Miró, and Dalí) and Barcelona's late-19th-century industrial prosperity teamed up with a surge in Catalonian nationalism to run rampant in the Eixample neighborhood, where bourgeois families competed with each other by decorating their opulent mansions.

A cultural movement that went beyond architecture, Modernisme affected everything from clothes to hairstyles to tombstones. Painters such as Ramón Casas and Santiago Russinyol, sculptors such as Miquel Blay and Eusebi Arnau, stained-glass artisans, ceramicists, acid engravers, and wood-carvers all contributed to the artistic explosion. The curved line replaced the straight; natural elements such as flowers and fruit were sculpted into facades; and the classical and pragmatic gave way to decorative ebullience.

Barcelona's Palau de la Música Catalana by Lluís Domènech i Montaner is a stunning compendium of Art Nouveau techniques, including acid-engraved and stained glass, polychrome ceramics, carved wooden arches, and sculpture. Josep Puig i Cadafalch's Casa Amatller and his Casa de les Punxes are examples of Modernisme's eclectic, historical tendency. Josep Graner i Prat's Casa de la Papallona, Joan Rubió Bellver's Casa Golferichs, Antoni Gaudí's Casa Batlló, and Salvador Valeri i Pupurull's Casa Comalat converted Barcelona's Eixample into a living Moderniste museum.

The Ruta del Modernisme is an itinerary through the Barcelona of Gaudì, Domènech i Montaner, and Puig i Cadafalch, the architects who, along with others, made Barcelona the world capital of Modernisme in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: palaces, private houses, the temple that has become a symbol of the city, and a huge hospital join pharmacies, lampposts, and benches—115 works in all—tracing Art Nouveau's explosion in Barcelona.

There are three Modernisme Centers—Centre d'Informació de Turisme de Barcelona (Plaça de Catalunya 17, Soterrani; Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau (Pavelló de Santa Apol.lònia, Carrer Sant Antoni Claret 167); and Pavellons Güell (Av. de Pedralbes 7)—that sell items related to the route, including a route pack with discount vouchers, a map showing all 115 works, a guide to Moderniste bars and restaurants, a pencil, a notebook, and a bag in which to carry it all. For more details call902/076621 or check out www.rutadelmodernisme.com. The Modernisme Route guidebook—the most comprehensive Modernisme study in Barcelona—is available for EUR 12 in most local bookstores and at all three Modernisme Centers; it includes discount vouchers good for up to 50% on all Moderniste monuments in the city and in another 13 towns.