Route 4: Canet de Mar - Arenys de Munt - Arenys de Mar

EL MODERNISME
 

MODERNISM

Modernism is a cultural movement that took place in Europe around the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. Although this cultural movement of searching for new forms and expressions affected all expressions of art and thought, it was in architecture and the plastic arts where it is shown with full force.

In Catalonia, Modernism adopted a special dimension and personality which can be found in very different types of buildings of the whole Catalan geography: factories, agricultural cooperatives, athenaeums, markets and houses.

The historical moment was ideal, due to the economic growth and national reaffirmation of the territory. Agriculture was focused on exports (wine, nuts), and there was an important industrial development, of the textile sector in particular. Trade and finance were flourishing in large cities, especially Barcelona, where the Medieval City Walls had become too small and an urban growth and expansion plan had begun.

This situation in Catalonia contrasts with a particularly pessimistic moment in Spain, where the loss of the last American colonies puts Spain in crisis and manifests the stagnation of its state structures and the lack of modernity of Spanish economy and society.

Modernist architecture in Catalonia meant, on the one hand, the modernisation of construction techniques (use of iron in structures and prefabricated elements), and on the other, the preservation of traditional elements (constructions with exposed brick) connected to the Gothic style with which it has certain parallelism. It is a decorative architecture that integrates all of the fine arts in the building. Architects are often also interior decorators and design all the details: furniture, marquetry, stained glass windows, mosaics, forging, etc. There is a demand for handicrafts at a time of industrial dominance.

The main features that define Modernism are the predominance of the curve over the straight line, asymmetry, dynamism of the forms, a detailed decoration in the search of an aesthetic per se, the frequent use of vegetal and natural motives and the feminine shape.

THE INDIANS

To talk about the Catalan Indians you have to look back at history.

The discovery of America opened up a new horizon of conquest, adventure and enrichment during the 16th century in Europe, and especially in Spain. America produced cotton, sugar, coffee, corn, potatoes, tobacco, cocoa, vanilla, various kinds of wood, plants to dye clothes .... and, in exchange, Europe would send finished products, shoes, textiles, etc.

At first, there were only two Spanish ports authorized to trade with America: Seville and Cadiz, but it was in the latter that an important colony of Catalans was established to begin to trade overseas. Later on, the trade ban with was overturn and 13 Spanish ports were authorized to trade with 20 American ports. From the Catalan ports of Barcelona and San Carles de la Ràpita, Palma de Mallorca and Alicante sailed many ships, which were later joined by Vilanova and Geltrú, Sitges, Mataró, Arenys de Mar, Tossa, Palafrugell, Sant Antoni de Calonge and Sant Feliu de Guíxols. They travelled mainly to Cuba, Mexico, Argentina and Venezuela.

Catalan settlements in America proliferated, especially from the end of the 18th century onwards. It was mainly people from the coast, but there were also emigrants from the more inland regions and so the figure of the "Indiano" or "Americano" was created: owners of large coffee plantations, cultivated lands, livestock but above all commercial establishments who made great fortunes and returned to Catalonia improving their economic and social status. In a way to remember the colonial atmosphere which they had lived in and had been so propitious that they built colonial-style houses: towers with porticoed galleries and surrounded by tropical gardens. But they also felt generous with their country and their native fellowmen and built schools and hospitals and invested in different industries and institutions