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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.1832
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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. -
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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1846
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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. -
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
Edifici de tres plantes amb un porxo de ferro. Té un pavelló independent de lavabos. D'imatge classicitzant, amb maons estucats a la façana, distingia les estacions de la línia de ferrocarril M.Z.A. a la zona. -
Casa Bernardí Martorell
Ubicada al Districte de Ciutat Vella, aquesta casa de veïns entre mitgeres es localitza a l'illa de cases delimitada pels carrers de l'Hospital (des d'on es produeix l'accés principal), d'en Robador, de Sant Rafael i la rambla del Raval. A més, aquest edifici allotja l'accés al Passatge de Bernardí Martorell, que comunica el carrer de l'Hospital amb el de Sant Rafael. La finca, essent partida pel passatge, acull un edifici format per dos cossos units per mitjà d'un arc sobre el qual també s'ha construït. Així i tot, l'estructura en alçat de la façana principal mostra una aparença compacta i comprèn planta baixa, tres plantes, un àtic i un segon àtic producte d'una remunta moderna. La planta baixa, acabada en pedra de Montjuïc, està configurada per quatre arcs escarsers que donen accés a les botigues i un arc de mig punt central que dona accés al passatge, on es troba el vestíbul de l'immoble. Aquest arc destaca per estar emmarcat de dues semicolumnes dòriques acanalades que sostenen un entaulament a base de tríglifs i mètopes. Aquesta obra neoclàssica que alguns autors han datat erròniament vers el s. XVI, estava rematada anteriorment per dues escultures sedents dels déus Mart i Apol·lo, avui desaparegudes. Les obertures, aliniades en eixos verticals, presenten dimensions decreixents en alçada i es presenten emmarcades amb muntants i llindes de pedra motllurada i a platabandes. Els balcons, de volada decreixent i sostinguts sobre mènsules en forma de voluta de pedra i amb els angles arrodonits, es presenten tancats amb baranes de ferro colat amb una potent ornamentació en forma de traceria neogòtica. Els murs es presenten revestits amb un estuc que, per mitjà d'una variada policromia, pren l'aspecte de carreus de marbre blanc amb betes grises. Tanmateix, l'element característic d'aquest edifici és la seva profusa ornamentació a base d'aplics de terracota en relleu inserits en quarterons verticals d'estuc entre balcó i balcó. Aquest tipus d'ornamentació, molt típica de l'arquitectura barcelonina de les dècades de 1840 i 1850, dota de gran plasticitat les façanes de la ciutat. Les terracotes d'aquesta finca presenten forma de canelobres vegetals entrellaçats i de composició ascendent, a base de putti, caps de lleó, estípits en forma de faune, gerros i fulles d'acant. Les sobreportes dels balcons del principal també estan ornats a base de relleus de terracota, en aquest cas consistents en al·legories a la indústria tèxtil per mitjà d'escenes fabrils protagonitzades per infants L'àtic, separat de la resta de pisos per una cornisa motllurada que serveix de llosana als balcons ampitadors que l'obren al carrer, també està decorat amb relleus de terracota a base de garlandes florals. La façana queda rematada per un segon àtic afegit durant la primera meitat del s. XX, amb llurs balcons ampitadors sobre la cornisa que antigament definia la línia de la solera del terrat.1849
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1849 - 1852
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1846 - 1860