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Planell House
autoria desconeguda
Residential building with a ground floor and four upper storeys, featuring a cornice and a flat roof terrace. The main façade on Baixada de la Seu is symmetrically arranged along three vertical axes, corresponding to the three ground-floor entrances. It follows a classical typology with a mezzanine, main floor, and two additional upper floors, with social hierarchy reflected in the design of the balconies: the mezzanine has railings flush with the façade; the main floor features a continuous balcony; and the upper floors have individual balconies that decrease in height. Pilasters separating the balconies are nearly flat and topped with Ionic capitals. The cornice is decorated with modillions and overlapping tile motifs. The façade on Carrer del Bisbe is flat and sparsely fenestrated.1832
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Fountain of Neptune
The Fountain-Monument has three parts: a base, a column and a statue. The base is square with eight springs, which are reliefs of human faces. The column is Doric in style, with the lower part of the shaft fluted and the upper part featuring girls dancing with water jugs in their hands (a symbol of civic joy). The base has garlands on the sides and animals on the corners. The statue represents King Neptune crowned and holding a trident in his right hand. The Espelt water gate had a spectacular effect on the town, and the best evidence of this can be seen in the monuments erected to commemorate the event. The monument was part of a group of four public fountains designed as the culmination of the water gate. The fountain was designed by Francesc Vallès, an engineer of French descent, and the artistic work was carried out by the sculptor Damià Campeny. It was inaugurated on 11 June 1832. In 1970, the town council had the monument rebuilt. The work was carried out by Hugo Pratch under the direction of the architect Joan Bassegoda Nonell. -
Cementiri de Vic
autoria desconeguda
Forma un clos rectangular de direcció N-S, amb una capella al centre del mur nord i un portal d'accés al recinte de la part sud, amb fileres de nínxols a banda i banda. El portal presenta dues columnes estriades, amb capitells que sostenen un arquitrau, damunt del qual hi ha una creu de marbre i una làpida, també de marbre amb un rellotge de sorra, una torxa i una dalla. Damunt de l'arquitrau hi ha una inscripció. En el mateix mur del portal, de cara a migdia hi ha dues torrelles de pedra picada que trenquen la monotonia del mur. És construït amb totxo i arrebossat al damunt. L'estat de conservació és força bo. Capella del cementiri: Es troba adossada al mur nord del recinte, mirant vers migdia. És de petites dimensions i presenta un atri, amb frontó triangular sense decorar i l'arquitrau, també llis. Aquests elements són sostinguts per columnes de fust llis. El portal d'accés és rectangular. L'edifici és cobert a dues vessants i el capcer és triangular formant una mena de frontó, coronat per un petit campaneret d'espadanya amb campana.1834
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1838
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1839
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1836 - 1840
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1840
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Torre d'en Brunet
autoria desconeguda
Located to the southeast of the centre of Sant Salvador de Guardiola, near the new Brunet House. The Brunet tower was a military optical telegraphy tower. The building has the classic typology of this type of construction. It was square in plan and had a rectangular defensive body attached to the north face, and was surrounded by a moat. In elevation, it consisted of a slightly embattled ground floor with four loopholes on each side, an upper floor with loopholes and windows, and finally a roof terrace (partially in ruins). The entrance door opened at the height of the first floor on the south side, probably accessed by means of a wooden staircase that was kept inside. The walls are made of rusticated stone masonry and the division between the floors is marked by a protruding profile. The Brunet tower was part of the Barcelona-Manresa-Solsona military optical telegraphy line. This line shared the first seven telegraph towers with the Barcelona-Lérida line. Thus, the line began at the tower of Montjuïc Castle and continued to the tower of Can Maçana or La Guardia, in the village of El Bruc. It then turned north towards the Brunet tower. The Brunet tower, 420 m high, had a direct line of sight to the previous tower of Can Maçana del Bruc, located 7.4 km away to the south. The rear tower was Puigterrà de Manresa, 6.8 km to the north (no longer standing). The later tower preserved in the latter is that of Sant Martí de Torroella in Sant Joan de Vilatorrada. The Brunet tower was part of the Barcelona-Manresa-Solsona military optical telegraphy line. Optical telegraphy is a system based on a series of signals made at a high point, such as a tower or a bell tower, by an operator, which another operator sees from another point, communicated visually, and repeats it; in this way a message can be transmitted quickly from one point to another on the line. There were various ways of making the signals, such as a tall wooden pole with two crossbeams at the ends which, operated by pulleys, could change position – each position was a letter or key which, thanks to a book of keys, could be deciphered. The operators had long-sighted glasses that allowed the distance between the different points to be greater than if they did not have them. While in countries such as France and England optical telegraphy lines had already been built at the end of the 18th century, in Spain construction did not begin until 1844, by which time electric telegraphy had already begun to be used in some countries. The creation of a line involved the installation of communication systems on existing high points or the construction of towers in places where the distance was too great. In Catalonia, the first line came from Valencia and reached La Jonquera via Barcelona. During the Second Carlist War (1846-1849), the Marquis of Duero, Captain General of Catalonia, commissioned the development of an important military fixed optical telegraphy network. Six lines were created, including the Manresa - Vic - Girona line. In 1853, the first electric telegraphy line was built between Madrid and Irún, which marked the beginning of the abandonment of optical telegraphy and the disuse of the towers built for this purpose. In 1857, the civil telegraphy towers were dismantled and abandoned, and in 1862 the military towers were officially abandoned. This marked the end of the short history of optical telegraphy in Catalonia, but which left the telegraph towers as a witness.1844
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Sedó Colony
autoria desconeguda
Former textile factory with several warehouses, chimneys, an aqueduct, houses for the workers and a church with a school. They are simple and functional stone and brick constructions with gable roofs. The preserved chimneys have various shapes, from rectangular to helical. The 1400 HP Turbine Planas is preserved. The Sedó Colony was founded in 1846 by Miquel Puig i Catasús, who built a textile factory o an old flour mill that already existed ("Can Broquetes"). It would grow rapidly until it adopted the characteristics of an industrial colony and, finally, in the 20th century, it would become one of the largest and most important companies in the economic and industrial history of Catalonia. After the death of Miquel Puig (1863), he was replaced by his son, Josep Puig i Llagostera, who started the construction of houses for the workers, expanded the factory and planned various development works. His administrator and substitute, Antoni Sedó i Pàmies, was who would culminate the process of growth and formation of the industrial colony that would bear his name and who developed the entire textile production process. At the same time, he enlarged the workers' colony with new housing for the workers and their families, with the installation of shops, schools, the church, a dispensary, cinema and casino, among others. The workers' colony was located right next to the factory and was structured in elongated blocks of ground-floor and two-storey houses that formed seven parallel streets. In the middle of these parallel streets was the church and, on either side, the schools. After the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939, the colony reached its maximum growth, but, at the same time, the first symptoms of crisis would begin. Currently, the Sedó colony has been converted into an important industrial estate where there are different companies and industrial activities. The central core of the Sedó Colony Museum is located in one of these industrial spaces.1846
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Manresa Cemetery
Monumental façade with the main door decorated with pilasters and a large cornice, under which there is a frieze with a bas-relief depicting Jesus climbing to Calvary. The side walls of the door are decorated with large tombstones. Inside, the door reproduces the façade of a Greek temple with two columns with Doric capitals and a triangular pediment. On each side, there is a corridor with classical columns (12 on each side) in the Tuscan order, leading to the church. These corridors feature niches, some of which are of great artistic value. Inside the enclosure formed by the porticoes and the entrance, family pantheons and tombs are scattered in an orderly fashion, some of them true works of architecture and sculpture of great quality, making the complex an attractive showcase of late 19th and early 20th century styles. Of particular note are the tomb of the Portabella i Argullol family, built by the architect Bernat Pejoan and the sculptor Josep Llimona; the Serra i Santamans family mausoleum, in the Neo-Romanesque style; and the Borràs family mausoleum, in the Neo-Gothic style. The cemetery chapel has a classical composition and design, which is very well suited to the exterior and interior façade. The building project is from 1846. -
1847
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1847 - 1848
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1848
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Estació Vella
Three-storey building with an iron porch. It has a separate toilet block. With its classic appearance and stuccoed brick façade, it distinguished the stations of the M.Z.A. railway line in the area. -
Bernardí Martorell House
Located in the Ciutat Vella district, this terraced apartment building stands within the block bounded by Carrer de l’Hospital (from which the main entrance is accessed), Carrer d’en Robador, Carrer de Sant Rafael and Rambla del Raval. The building also contains the entrance to Passatge de Bernardí Martorell, which connects Carrer de l’Hospital with Carrer de Sant Rafael. The property, divided by the passageway, comprises a building made up of two sections joined by means of an arch over which construction has also taken place. Even so, the vertical structure of the principal façade presents a compact appearance and consists of a ground floor, three upper floors, an attic and a second attic resulting from a later 20th century addition. The ground floor, finished in Montjuïc stone, is arranged with four segmental arches giving access to shops and a central semicircular arch leading into the passage, where the building’s vestibule is located. This arch stands out for being framed by two fluted Doric semi-columns supporting an entablature composed of triglyphs and metopes. This Neoclassical work, which some authors have mistakenly dated to the sixteenth century, was formerly crowned by two seated sculptures of the gods Mars and Apollo, now lost. The openings, aligned along vertical axes, decrease in height on the upper floors and are framed by moulded stone jambs and lintels with flat bands. The balconies, which project progressively less on the higher levels and are supported by stone volute-shaped corbels with rounded corners, are enclosed by cast-iron railings featuring rich Neo-Gothic tracery ornament. The walls are rendered in stucco which, through varied polychromy, imitates ashlar blocks of white marble veined with grey. The most distinctive feature of this building, however, is its profuse ornamentation of terracotta relief appliqués inserted in vertical stucco panels between the balconies. This type of decoration, very characteristic of Barcelona architecture in the 1840s and 1850s, lends considerable plasticity to the city’s façades. The terracottas on this building take the form of intertwined vegetal candelabra in ascending compositions, incorporating putti, lion heads, faun-shaped pilasters, vases and acanthus leaves. The overdoors of the principal-floor balconies are also adorned with terracotta reliefs, in this case depicting allegories of the textile industry through factory scenes featuring children. The attic, separated from the floors below by a moulded cornice that serves as the base for the parapet balconies opening onto the street, is likewise decorated with terracotta reliefs in the form of floral garlands. The façade is crowned by a second attic added during the first half of the twentieth century, with its parapet balconies set upon the cornice that formerly marked the line of the roof slab.1849
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Can Comelles
autoria desconeguda
Large house made up of several buildings and a chapel. It is built of brick and oriented towards the rising sun. The oldest part, corresponds to the current cellar and retains some pointed Gothic arches. The main block is rectangular in plan, has an attached lookout tower and consists of a ground floor and two floors. The main façade has a porch at the entrance and the openings have wrought iron grills. The deck is flat with a balustrade rail. As for the interior, we must highlight the wooden railing of the staircase, with Renaissance and Baroque decorative elements. The patio is from the end of the 19th century – then, it became a garden with Italian sculptures of gods. The origin of the country house dates back to the 14th century. It is known that it already existed in 1350 under the name of Mas d'en Pi. From the 14th to the 18th century, this house was owned, in a direct line, by the descendants of the founder of the manor house, the Comelles family, who had very illustrious characters as guests, even members of royalty. Later, the administration of the property passed to the community of priests of the parish church of Esparreguera. The chapel is from 1717.1850




































