Xalet del Catllaràs contains elements of architect’s naturalistic style, expressed in works such as Park Güell and Sagrada Família
An elegant modernist building in the mountains north of Barcelona, originally constructed to house engineers establishing a nearby mine, has been confirmed as a work of Antoni Gaudí, Catalonia’s most celebrated and distinctive architect.
The Xalet del Catllaràs, about 80 miles from Barcelona in the county of Berguedà, was built in 1905 and commissioned by Eusebi Güell, Gaudí’s lifelong patron. Güell was the owner of a cement company with mines in the region and he needed somewhere to house the engineers, many of them British, who would help extract the coal for his factories.
It has long been suspected that the chalet, now not in use, was the work of Gaudí but historians had not firmly established the architect. The building contains elements of Gaudí’s naturalistic style, evoking the forms of plants and animals that would later be expressed in works such as Park Güell and the Casa Batllò in Barcelona. The pointed arch structure also foreshadows Gaudí’s best-known work, the Sagrada Família in Barcelona.
Sònia Hernández Almodóvar, the Catalan culture minister, said the attribution was the fruit of “rigorous research which is of enormous value for our heritage” and enriched Gaudí’s legacy on the centenary of his death.
