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1840
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1873 - 1874
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Cultural and Recreational Centre
autoria desconeguda
Large house between partitions, with a gable roof, two floors, a setback floor and a more sunken space at the back. Based on the classical forms of the façade, there is a large room with pilasters and vaults and a staircase leading to the upper floor where there is a spacious room with mouldings, paintings and a flat ceiling from 1877, and several annexed services. Dances, cultural events, theatre, etc., were held in the Cultural and Recreational Centre of Gelida until 1933, year in which a new café was inaugurated (the current Café de la Pista del Casal Gelidenc). The ground floor was occupied by the café, presided over by a painting evoking the reapers of the Corpus de Sang of 1640. In 1939, it was occupied by the "Frente de Juventudes" and later acquired by the Gelida City Council.1877
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1872 - 1878
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1876 - 1880
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Torre Mena
autoria desconeguda
Torre de baixos i dos pisos al cos central i d'un sol pis als laterals. Al nivell de la planta noble del cos central, un balcó molt sortit es recolza sobre columnetes de ferro. Conjuga, amb sentit eclèctic, elements clàssics, com les columnes del vestíbul, els carreus en punta de diamant, les obertures i les proporcions en general amb elements medievals, com els merlets i la torreta central. El jardí d'accés a la torre ha estat eliminat per a obrir l'avinguda del Marquès de Sant Mori i ampliar la plaça Trafalgar.1880
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1887
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1888
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Agricultural Centre of Vilafranca del Penedès
The building is located in the 19th century Eixample. The main façade overlooks the Rambla de Nostra Senyora. It is a construction between partitions and it is at the corner of a covered passage through which it is accessed. It consists of a ground floor and a main floor, with an Arabic tile roof on two sides facing the side façades. It presents an eclectic language with reminiscences of wooden agricultural constructions and ceramic tiles. The Agricultural Centre was the society of rural owners. Their agricultural talks started in 1900. There were also artistic demonstrations and dances. During the Civil War it was the Revolutionary Committee’s headquarters. Later, a cinema was built inside.1892
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Fontova Theatre and Ateneu Unió
autoria desconeguda
Set of two buildings with a simple line and structure, which follows the Catalan Art Nouveau principles in its historicist aspect. The theatre presents a two-storey façade with a gable roof and with some finishes simulating a non-existent turret, like Danés i Torras’ type 2-IV country houses. But this is reduced to a vertical extension of the façade wall without any subsequent structure. On the ground floor there is a central door with two large rectangular windows now boarded up that retain their initial forgings and dated from 1903. The first floor has a small central opening and a simple border of sgraffito simulating a pediment that frames the name of the theatre and date of construction. The annex building, the café, also follows the historicist line but more like a manor. It has two floors, with large rectangular openings on the sides of the door on the ground floor and three balconies on the first floor, the central one a little bigger than the lateral but without other extensions. Both the doors and the windows are highlighted by a wide strip of smooth stucco just like in the theatre. This feature and the wide common plinth is the nexus of physical and aesthetic union between the two buildings, probably connected by the interior, as was usual. In the construction of the colony, the recreational aspect could not be neglected in order to achieve an authentic social atmosphere. The creation of the café and the theatre, if we stick to the dates, started earlier. At the beginning of the century, gathering for coffee, playing cards and having small talk were, together with professional or amateur theatre, the most common distraction (someone said that "if Catalans don't go to the theatre much it's because they are all on the 'stage...'). The café still stands to this day and is still the largest and liveliest in the colony. -
1897
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1898
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Cor de Marina
El "Coro de Marina" fou fundat el 1882.. Edifici entre mitgeres, amb planta baixa, entresòl, pis i golfes, amb semisoterrani. La seva estructura és de ferro. Té dues façanes, de les quals, la principal dona a la Rambla i al mar, i té una composició d'elements formals típics de l'eclecticisme. -
second half of the 19th century
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Cercle Mercantil
Francesc de Paula Sellés Vilaró
The Mercantil building follows an eclectic style. The façade can be divided into five parts: the main entrance is located in the central, most advanced part. The name of the entity is located at the top and the year of its foundation in the centre, and a covered gallery connects both ends with the central part. The decorative elements are the sgraffito, placed on the tympanums of the two openings flanking the building, and the metallic-effect ceramic frieze. Inside, the theatre is particularly noteworthy: upon entering, we find the amphitheatre, and then the stalls surrounded on either side by galleries. The first floor has a central area with armchairs and two side areas with tiers of seats. The whole building is surrounded by a well-tended garden. The Mercantile, Industrial and Agricultural Centre was founded in 1899 as a result of a disagreement between several members of the former Casino de Recreo, some of whom were supporters of the Godó family and others of the Boyer family. The organisation's social club was built on the site of the former Tívoli theatre, and its inauguration coincided with the town's annual festival in 1899. The Mercantile Circle celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1949. It contains a theatre, a café-lounge and a ballroom. It was built according to a design by architect Francisco de B. Galtés, with the construction supervised by Francesc Sellés, decoration by Frederic Brunet and painting by Bartomeu Camps and Antoni Tomàs.1893 - 1899
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1900
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Igualada Working Class Cultural Association
Pau Riera i Galtés, Pau Salvat i Espasa
One-storey building. The façade is divided into three sections - a central section with three doorways and three windows, and two side sections with four openings each. Once up the entrance stairs, we find ourselves in a large atrium, formerly a theatre, which now serves as a hallway leading to the different rooms: library, theatre, café and office. Art Nouveau leaded glass windows above the doors alternate floral representations with allegories of the organisation. The theatre, attributed to the architect Pau Salvat i Espasa, is the most important room. Structurally, it is horseshoe-shaped and consists of a stalls area and two floors. The decorative features include the frieze surrounding the ceiling and the iron railings, designed by the Igualada-born set designer Pere Valls i Bofarull. Outside, the Municipal School of Music is located to the left of the building and the garden is to the right, with a fountain decorated with trencadís mosaic. The Athenaeum was founded in the heat of the romantic progressivism that was in vogue in Catalonia during the second half of the last century, and its combination of cultural, educational and recreational activities played a fundamental role in spreading progressive ideas and popular culture. After the fire that destroyed the old headquarters in 1873, the current building was constructed in 1877. In the 19th century, it ran a primary school, a theatre and a library. Between 1919 and 1935, the organisation gained momentum with the establishment of a school group linked to the Catalan educational movement, a music conservatory, a weaving school and a sports ground. After 1939, the national forces seized the building and it was renamed the ‘National Centre’. -
1859 - 1926
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Carme Recreation Centre
autoria desconeguda
It is a rectangular building with a gable roof consisting of three sections: a central section, narrower and taller, with a large balustraded balcony on the first floor and a main door with a segmental arch; and two side sections, somewhat lower than the central section, with three windows on the ground floor and three more on the first floor. All the openings, as well as the eaves and the vertical separations between the sections, are made of brick. The whole building is painted white and has a marked symmetry (Salas, Salazar, 2011). It has two side sections with an irregular stone plinth at the bottom. The current brick coping is a later addition. The very narrow central section frames the main entrance to the building, which is accessed via a staircase with five steps. The door leads to a room that acts as a hallway, and where the ticket office used to be. On one side, from this space, there was access to the right-hand side section, which was the old cafeteria, now a nursery (the door is currently boarded up). On the other side, there was access to the right-hand section, which was the auditorium. Both sections are rectangular and parallel, the left one being much longer as it ends with the stage. Thus, the central section only houses the auditorium and some spaces on the first floor just above it, which are accessed by a staircase integrated into a new parallel section along the left wall. The main or social hall of the old recreational society was located in that space on the first floor. The left-hand side building, which is longer, has the typical tent-like structure of a theatre. The hall was used for both dancing and theatre. The roof has been refurbished with fibreglass and the wooden trusses are no longer visible. The hydraulic mosaic flooring stands out. The theatre preserves the old stage machinery and dressing rooms. The right-hand side of the building is single-storey and this is where the cafeteria was located. It opens onto a courtyard and currently houses the municipal nursery. The wall facing the courtyard shows the irregular masonry of boulders bound with mortar, with the corners and architectural openings framed with brick. This finish contrasts with the plastering of the main façade. The building has undergone various transformations over time. There are no documents that tell us the date on which the Carme recreation centre was built. However, the construction of this building should be placed in the first quarter of the 20th century. Before the Spanish Civil War, there were two social centres in Carme: the left-wing one (the current Casal de Carme), called the Centro Popular de Carme, and the right-wing one, called the Centro Recreativo (and the subject of this file). The left-wing centre was for workers and the right-wing centre was for owners and manufacturers. There was great rivalry between the two societies in Carme. They are located on the same street, opposite each other. The Carme recreation centre housed two organisations: the Workers' Cooperative Centre, established in 1922, and the Recreation Association, founded in 1925. The former has a social purpose (education, recreation, library, cultural activities, etc.), but its main function is as a cooperative. Whereas the ‘Recreational Association’, as its name suggests, was dedicated to leisure activities such as dance and theatre performances. Currently, the Recreational Centre is owned by the Town Council and the main hall is mainly used for theatre performances, leisure activities, etc. However, the municipality has a new cultural facility built on the site of the former Centre Popular.first half of the 20th century
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20th century
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Casal Gelidenc Café
autoria desconeguda
Large rectangular building with a gable roof. It has with two floors, the first one is covered by tiled vaults and the second by a flat roof and "art déco" decoration. The extraordinary luminosity due to the large windows and the longitudinal balcony on the left of the building, where the coat of arms of Catalonia appears on the railing, is worth noting, a motif that is repeated in the two attic windows, where on one of them has disappeared.