Torre Nova was completed in 1897. It is a square building with two polygonal bodies – one to the east, where the main entrance is located, and the other to the west in the form of a tribune. It has a ground floor, two storeys and an attic. The exterior is completely plastered, although the façade is currently in very poor condition. The only decoration is on the doors and windows and is clearly Gothic in style, with floral decorations, medieval bestiary decorations and gargoyles. The openings are also framed by mouldings reminiscent of the pattern of the old tower (BIPPC 36).
The decorative repertoire in the interior is noteworthy, especially in the vestibule, where allegorical themes are depicted on the continents. The halls are profusely decorated with themes appropriate to their functions.
The driving force behind Cal Pons - one of the most interesting industrial colonies in Catalonia in terms of town planning and architecture - was Josep Pons i Enrich, born in Manresa in 1811, descendant of a Manresa family linked to the silk industry during the 18th century. From the mid-19th century onwards, Josep Pons became an important cotton industrialist who was also a politician, founder of the Caja de Manresa and promoter of the Manresa railway in Berga. In 1875, Josep Pons bought the land of Cal Garrigal - which he later extended with the purchase of more land from surrounding country houses - with the intention of building an industrial colony. The following year he obtained permission for the industrial use of water from the Llobregat river and then had the lock, the canal, the turbine hall and the factory built, which was inaugurated in 1880. One of the most important buildings at Cal Pons, due to the services it housed, was the one built next to the church in 1893. This space included the school, the nuns‘ convent, the girls’ residence and the theatre. However, the most emblematic buildings - due to their spectacular nature - of the colony were and still are others: the church and the owners' towers. The church, inaugurated in 1887, was described by the press of the time as the ‘Cathedral of the Alt Llobregat’. The two towers, located around a garden, were built before 1885 (the old one) and in 1897 (the new one). The whole of the colony under construction was surrounded by a wall about two metres high with three gates and two doors. The gatekeepers and the watchman ensured that no worker entered or left the perimeter of the colony after 20.00 or 21.00 (depending on the time of year). This wall was demolished during the Civil War and was never rebuilt.
In 1893, Josep Pons i Enrich died, and three years later, his heir, Ignasi Pons, too. From then until 1921, Lluís G. Pons, brother of the colony's founder, became the strong man of the family and the owner of Cal Pons. The situation of the colony - already built and consolidated - and the figure of the director of the factory - who controlled the economic functioning of the company and the maintenance of order and ‘social peace’ and who had his own villa from 1900 onwards - allowed Mr. Pons to focus on his political activity. It was during these years when Lluís Pons became the owner of Cal Pons that the paternalistic relationship with the workers was consolidated. Paternalism was based on an unwritten pact whereby the owner offered work, a flat, food, services, stability and security to his workers in exchange for them working, obeying and not breaking the ‘social peace’.
Like most of the colonies in Berguedà, Cal Pons remained in full swing and full of life until the 1960s. From then on, things began to evolve rapidly. The factory continued to operate until 1992, but from the 1970s, and especially during the 1980s, the signs of the crisis in the textile sector were felt and the colony model also went into decline: many people left Cal Pons and the services were closing. With the closure of the factory, the whole of the colony - except for the turbine - was repossessed. When it was put up for sale - by public auction at the end of the 1990s – the Puig-reig Town Council acquired a large part of the colony's spaces.
In 1908, King Alfonso XIII of Spain stayed in this house. It is now owned by the Puig-reig Town Council, which plans to locate the new municipal offices.
