In this first stage, the catalogue focuses on the modern and contemporary architecture designed and built between 1832 –year of construction of the first industrial chimney in Barcelona that we establish as the beginning of modernity– until today.
The project is born to make the architecture more accessible both to professionals and to the citizens through a website that is going to be updated and extended. Contemporary works of greater general interest will be incorporated, always with a necessary historical perspective, while gradually adding works from our past, with the ambitious objective of understanding a greater documented period.
The collection feeds from multiple sources, mainly from the generosity of architectural and photographic studios, as well as the large amount of excellent historical and reference editorial projects, such as architectural guides, magazines, monographs and other publications. It also takes into consideration all the reference sources from the various branches and associated entities with the COAC and other collaborating entities related to the architectural and design fields, in its maximum spectrum.
Special mention should be made of the incorporation of vast documentation from the COAC Historical Archive which, thanks to its documental richness, provides a large amount of valuable –and in some cases unpublished– graphic documentation.
The rigour and criteria for selection of the works has been stablished by a Documental Commission, formed by the COAC’s Culture Spokesperson, the director of the COAC Historical Archive, the directors of the COAC Digital Archive, and professionals and other external experts from all the territorial sections that look after to offer a transversal view of the current and past architectural landscape around the territory.
The determination of this project is to become the largest digital collection about Catalan architecture; a key tool of exemplar information and documentation about architecture, which turns into a local and international referent, for the way to explain and show the architectural heritage of a territory.
We kindly invite you to help us improve the dissemination of Catalan architecture through this space. Here you can propose works and provide or amend information on authors, photographers and their work, along with adding comments. The Documentary Commission will analyze all data. Please do only fill in the fields you deem necessary to add or amend the information.
The Arxiu Històric del Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya is one of the most important documentation centers in Europe, which houses the professional collections of more than 180 architects whose work is fundamental to understanding the history of Catalan architecture. By filling this form, you can request digital copies of the documents for which the Arxiu Històric del Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya manages the exploitation of the author's rights, as well as those in the public domain. Once the application has been made, the Arxiu Històric del Col·legi d'Arquitectes de Catalunya will send you an approximate budget, which varies in terms of each use and purpose.
Complex building in the form of an angle, given the layout of the plots acquired. Two of the plots are occupied by the crypt and the third one is occupied by the staircase. The main volume is the outer part of the crypt. On a podium, which is accessed via a flight of four steps, stands the sculptural group of "Faith consoling pain", by Josep Llimona i Bruguera, where Faith is an angel and pain is a woman who cries inconsolably. The sculpture is made of marble, except for the angel's wings which are made of bronze. The pantheon is finished with a cross, also of bronze, richly decorated with floral and zoomorphic motifs. The perimeter is surrounded by pillars decorated with flames and crowns at the top. These pillars were attached by iron chains decorated with bronze medallions, but they were stolen. The sculptural group stands on a large marble plinth. On the front there is an inscription with the date and the name of the owner. On one side, there is a plaque placed by the City Council on the industrialist's death in 1926, in tribute to his favourite son. The staircase body is a construction created from an ogival vault. The main façade, facing north, has a pointed arched door made of wrought iron. The side walls are a continuation of the same stepped roof. At the ends there are pilasters topped by capitals in the shape of a cul-de-lampe. It is also delimited around the perimeter by the same type of pillars in the crypt sector, where they were also joined with chains that were also stolen.
Pere Grau Maristany i Oliver is one of the most illustrious characters in the town of El Masnou. He made his fortune as a wine exporter in the Americas (Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, ...). He was very present in the economic, social and cultural life of the Catalan capital. He was president of the Chamber of Commerce, royal delegate of the Provincial Development Council, juror of the Universal Exhibition of Barcelona in 1888. Fund XII decorated him with the Grand Cross and Alfonso XIII granted him the noble title of Count of Lavern. He bought two more plots from the cemetery to annex them to the one he already had and build a new pantheon, the design of which he commissioned Bonaventura Bassegoda i Amigó.