Casa Calvet: Gaudí on Good Behaviour

Why is it significant?

Stop on the pavement across from number 48 and take in a façade that seems, at first glance, almost polite: dressed stone, iron balconies, a symmetrical front that would not frighten a bank manager. This is Casa Calvet, and it was designed by Antoni Gaudí.

Key Facts

Open the walk

Stop on the pavement across from number 48 and take in a façade that seems, at first glance, almost polite: dressed stone, iron balconies, a symmetrical front that would not frighten a bank manager. This is Casa Calvet, and it was designed by Antoni Gaudí.

It went up between 1898 and 1900 for the heirs of Pere Màrtir Calvet, a textile manufacturer, with the family firm on the ground floor and flats above. Squeezed into a tight line of neighbours, Gaudí played by the rules. Almost. Look up to the top of the façade, where two curving gables rise against the sky, crowned by busts of saints: Saint Peter Martyr, the owner's namesake, and two saints called Genís, the patrons of Vilassar, the family's home town on the coast.

The fun is in the details. On the bay window above the door, carved in stone, there are mushrooms... a nod, it is said, to a member of the family who was passionate about mycology. The door knocker shows a cross striking down on a bedbug: good crushing evil, or simply a householder's opinion of insects. Even the iron pulley jutting out at the very top, meant for hauling furniture up to the flats, is drawn with care.

Then comes the paradox. In 1900 the City Council held the first of its annual competitions for the best new building in Barcelona, and the prize went to this house. Gaudí, the man who would later put a dragon on a roof and build an apartment block that looks like a sea cliff, won the city's official award for his most conventional work. It is often said to be the only official prize he received in his lifetime.

Casa Calvet is also a snapshot of a man about to change. Within a few years he would abandon straight lines almost completely, and you are about to see what happened when he did. Walk west towards Passeig de Gràcia and stop at its great crossing with the Gran Via, where the geometry of this whole district reveals itself.