The Pons colony is characterised by the fact that it is one of the textile colonies that was established and developed in a relatively short period of time (1875-1910), which gives it a great sense of unity. The two owners' towers, the director's tower and the church are the most emblematic buildings of Cal Pons, together with the garden.
In 1908, King Alfonso XIII travelled to the Llobregat basin and paid a visit to the Pons colony.
Church of Sant Josep
The church has a Latin cross plan and is 32 metres long. The main nave is covered with a ribbed vault, and the side chapels act as buttresses for the central nave. At the intersection of the main nave and the transept there is an octagonal dome. The polygonal apse has an ambulatory that leads to the crypt and the sacristy. In 1879, the isolated bell tower was erected and in 1907 the family pantheon was built, where Lluís Pons i Enrich and his wife, Anna Roca, were buried.
Externally, the church has a haughty appearance reinforced by the dome, the bell tower and the set of pinnacles. The main façade, facing south, is made of well-cut ashlars, while the rest of the building harmoniously combines rubble stone with brick.
It is a neo-Gothic building that was constructed in sixteen months, the work of the architect Josep Torres i Argullol. The interior was decorated by Francesc Morell, brother of the factory manager at the time.
School, convent, theatre and girls' home. The buildings have two storeys: the ground floor was used as a school and the upper floor was used as a convent, the priest's home and the residence for working girls. Like the rest of the buildings in the colony, the construction materials used were stone for the walls and brick for the windows and doors.
The old tower (a fortified town before 1885) and the new tower (inaugurated in 1897) are monumental buildings in a medieval historicist style. They were designed as medieval castles surrounded by gardens. The old tower was the first to be built. It is a solid but slender building, with a very marked central body. The Catalan spiral staircase stands out. It is eclectic in style with a Gothic influence.
The new tower is a large construction built on a rock at the end of the colony's gardens. In its structure, the central body predominates over both sides. The main façade, with a double staircase, faces north. The exterior walls combine brick, plaster and mosaics. It has many medieval-style decorative details: capitals with bestiary, floral decoration, gargoyles, blind arches on the eaves of the roof, etc. In the entrance hall there are allegorical paintings that refer to the continents of America, Africa, Asia and Europe. It is a landscape in the background with a female figure who brings some element that refers to each continent. In the representation of Europe, the background landscape is the Pons colony seen from the foot of the Llobregat. It was initially the continuous residence of the owners, later it served as a second residence and in the mid-20th century the furniture was auctioned off and it was converted into a towel factory.
The architect of these two buildings is unknown. However, it seems that it could have been Josep Torres i Argullol or Alexandre Soler i March, architects who worked for the Pons family. The director's villa was built before 1900, it is more austere and smaller, and its architect is also unknown.
The garden
When the colony was designed, the intention was to turn the estate into an enclosed garden that would isolate it from the outside world. The garden was for the private use of the owners of the colony and the director's family. But when the Pons family were not there, the workers could use the garden and the adjoining forest. In this space there was a great diversity of plant species (some of which have since disappeared): banana trees, lime trees, mulberry trees, trumpet trees, horse chestnut trees, palm trees, poplars, holm oaks, fir trees...
In the private garden of the new tower, two 1900s gazebos made of brick and wood stand out, overlooking the Llobregat river and the colony.
Until the 1950s and 1960s, the colony was the most active cultural centre in the municipality of Puig-reig. The magazine “Colònia Pons” was published and the Home School and the School of Labour linked to the Industrial School of Barcelona were created. The factory workers received training that was truly cutting edge at the regional level.
On 25 March 1886, construction began on the church of the Pons colony dedicated to the Virgin of Montserrat. It was consecrated on 10 August 1897. It was built at the same time as the large factory, the workers' housing and the two towers.
In the mid-20th century, and especially in the wake of the Spanish Civil War, the towers where the owners resided were abandoned and a progressive deterioration of the cultural activities and the park, which had an interesting collection of exotic birds, began.
The moments of splendour of the Pons colony coincide with the early days of its existence, between 1880 and 1930.
