Modernisme
Modernisme , the Catalan offshoot of Art Nouveau, was the expression of a renewed upsurge in Catalan nationalism in the 1870s. The early nineteenth-century economic recovery in Catalunya had provided the initial impetus, and the ensuing cultural renaissance in the region - the Renaixenca - led to the fresh stirrings of a new Catalan awareness and identity after the dark years of Bourbon rule. Lluis Domenech i Montaner (1850-1923) - perhaps the greatest modernista architect - was responsible for giving Catalan aspirations a definite direction with his appeal, in 1878, for a national style of architecture, drawing particularly on the rich Catalan Romanesque and Gothic traditions. The timing was perfect, since Barcelona was undergoing a huge expansion: the medieval walls had been pulled down and the gridded Eixample was giving the city a new shape, with a rather French feel to it, and plenty of new space to work in. By 1874 Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926) had begun his architectural career. Born in Reus to a family of artisans, his work was never strictly modernista in style (it was never strictly anything in style), but the imaginative impetus he provided to the movement was incalculable. Fourteen years later the young Josep Puig i Cadafalch (1867-1957) would be inspired to become an architect (and later a reforming politician) as he watched the spectacularly rapid round-the-clock construction of Domenech's Grand Hotel on the Passeig de Colom. It was in another building by Domenech (the cafe-restaurant of the Parc de la Ciutadella) that a craft workshop was set up after the Exhibition of 1888, giving Barcelona's modernista architects the opportunity to experiment with traditional crafts like ceramic tiles, ironwork, stained glass and decorative stone carving. This combination of traditional crafts with modern technology was to become the hallmark of modernisme - a combination which produced some of the most fantastic and exciting modern architecture to be found anywhere in the world. Most attention is usually focused on the three main protagonists mentioned above; certainly they provide the bulk of the most extraordinary buildings that Barcelona has to offer. But keep an eye out for lesser-known architects who also worked in the Eixample: Josep Maria Jujol , renowned as Gaudi's collaborator on several of his most famous projects, can also boast a few complete constructions of his own; or there are the hard-working Jeroni Granell (1867-1931) and Josep Vilaseca i Casanoves (1848-1910), who was responsible for the brick Arc de Triomf outside the Ciutadella park. It's Antoni Gaudi, though, that most have heard of - by training a metalworker, by inclination a fervent Catholic and Catalan nationalist. His buildings are the most daring creations of all Art Nouveau, apparently lunatic flights of fantasy which at the same time are perfectly functional. His architectural influences were Moorish and Gothic, while he embellished his work with elements from the natural world. Yet Gaudi rarely wrote a word about the theory of his art, preferring its products to speak for themselves. Like all the modernista buildings in the city, they demand reaction. Although he worked throughout Spain, Gaudi has become a symbol of Barcelona and Catalunya; in early 2000 he was proposed to the Vatican for beatification, and he yet may become the first Catalan saint of the twenty-first century.
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