The modernist triangle in the Maresme

Antoni Gaudí, Josep Puig i Cadafalch and Montaner are three of the great exponents of Modernism in Catalonia. This guided tour allows you to explore his life and work. We start in the city of Mataró where we will visit the Coll i Regàs house by Josep Puig i Cadafalch and the cotton bleaching warehouse and the first work of Antoni Gaudí.

The Coll i Regàs House

On May 12, 1897 Pere Comas, a palette, a resident of Mataró, asked the Mataró City Council for permission to completely renovate houses no. 55 and 57 on Calle de Argentona, the two houses that Joaquim Coll i Regàs had acquired the previous year. Although the text of the license application, the work consisted of the demolition of the two existing houses and the construction of a new building, as is expressly seen in the project plans that accompany the request for the building permit.

Curiously, these project plans are signed by the architect Antoni Gallissà (Barcelona, 1861-1903). The reason for this is not known, although perhaps it could be related to Puig i Cadafalch's recent past as the municipal architect of Mataró (1892-1896). However, the authorship of Puig i Cadafalch as designer of the work has always been manifest, and is confirmed in the monograph "L'oeuvre de Puig i Cadafalch" published in 1904 in Barcelona, which includes all of the architect's work since the beginning of his work until 1904.

The project includes a building with four floors, basement, ground floor, first floor and loft, all built again. The plans of the project include the façade, a diagram of the section and the ground and first floors; neither the basement floor nor the attic floor are listed.

The planning followed the tradition of the houses of the urban bourgeoisie of Mataró, and in this sense it is the only house built in the city in modernist times.

The visit will continue at the Nau Gaudí in Mataró.

The Nau Gaudí of Mataró

It is the first work built by the architect Antoni Gaudí. The result of a much broader and more ambitious project, the building is the only witness that has survived to this day of the factory premises of the Sociedad Cooperativa Obrera Mataronense, designed between 1878 and 1883.

Considered the starting point of the architect's creative process, the cooperative's cotton bleaching warehouse stands out for the importance of experimentation with parabolic arches, used for the first time by Gaudí as structural elements. This architectural solution would later become a key and highly representative element of Gaudi's work.

The visit will continue in Canet de Mar, in the Montaner House Museum, among others.

The Montaner House Museum

It is a space made up of two buildings of great heritage interest: the Rocky Farmhouse, a 17th-century farmhouse, and the Modernist-style Casa Domingo h (1919). The two buildings show the multifaceted career of the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner (1849-1923), father of Catalan modernist architecture.

In the Masía Rocosa, which was the Montaner's architecture workshop, the most professional aspect of the character is presented as an architect, editor, politician and intellectual. In the Domènech House, which was the house he built for his family, Montaner's most intimate space is displayed. The reception is shared with the information and tourism office, there is also a space dedicated to the history of Canet de Mar, and a room for temporary exhibitions. On the first floor, the route passes through different spaces dedicated to the town festivals, the influence of the Lluís Domènech family, the history of the Domènech House and the family environment.

The guided tour is organized by the Town Hall, which is also the meeting and starting point of the route. It is necessary to make a prior registration at the Mataró Tourist Office.