Casa Calvet - Guadi's most conventional building

Casa Calvet by Antoni Gaudí


Casa Calvet by Antoni Gaudí is his most conventional building. It is located at Carrer de Casp 48 in the Eixample district of Barcelona.

Casa Calvet was builtin the baroque Catalan style between 1898 and 1900 by Guadi for Eduard Calvet i Pintó of the Calvet family of textile industrialists

The design is very tame by Gaudí standards although it does have a few interesting details like the alternating size mushroom like balconies and stone mushrooms on the facade - a reference to the owners passion for collecting mushrooms.

Also note the two columns flanking the entrance which have the form of stacked bobbins— an reference to the Calvet family business.

The door has a wonderful forged iron door-knocker of a cross banging down onto a bug - the symbol of evil. 

On the first floor viewing gallery note the cypress symbolising hospitality, an olive tree for peace, cornucopia horns symbolising abundance, and the Catalan coat of arms and the owner's initial.

Three sculpted heads on the facade are Sant Pere Màrtir Calvet i Carbonell (his father) and two patron of Vilassar de Dalt, the Calvet's home town.

The Calvet offices were the ground floor and basement, and the family lived in the first floor of the building as was usual for building owners.

The building is in the baroque Catalan style and is the most conventional of all the Gaudi buildings in Barcelona, Spain.

Perhaps this is why it was the only structure of Gaudi's that won the Barcelona City Council award for best building of the year in 1900

For many years there was a restaurant called Casa Calvet in part of the ground floor but it closed in 2018.
The furniture for the family apartment were  also the work of the architect some of which can be seen in the Gaudi House Museum in Park Güell.

Barcelona's Gaudí UNESCO World Heritage Sites:

Park Güell
Palau Güell
La Pedrera (Casa Mila)
Casa Vicens 
Sagrada Familia church
Casa Batlló
Crypt in Colonia Güell (outside Barcelona)
Bellesguard/Casa Figueres manor house

Guide to modernist Barcelona



Other Gaudí works in Barcelona include:

Colegio Teresiano - not open to public
Bellesguard/Casa Figueres  manor house - partially open to public
Lamp posts on Plaza Reial
The dragon gate at Güell Pavilions
Portal Miralles. Gate of former Miralles estate

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Last Updated on Monday, 25 February 2019 22:56
 

Monday, 09 December 2024