My fascination with architecture continues.
Growing up in South Bombay has meant imbibing deeply of Art Deco and taking for granted wooded lanes and the Indo Saracenic, Gothic styles that make Colaba and Town so moodily spectacular. Who ever knew that Horniman circle is French Renaissance and Tata house is Beaux arts? That V.T and the GPO are Indo Saracenic with that rose window, and those gargoyles and islamic domes? How wonderful and deliciously Bombay it all is!
Once I grasped the meaning of Art Deco, I followed its trail, marvelling at its presence around me. Meanwhile, my love for Bombay’s nautical style of Art Deco, elegant balconies, waves and guard rails, lean lines, circular stairs, smoky mirrors, women holding torches, Egyptian accents of claw feet and mummy faces continued to entrance me. I would gaze helplessly at elegant, gracious apartments on Marine Drive and the Oval: window accents, sunny balconies, and long corridors and wonder who lived in them. If you have a home there, please ask me over to poke around, I will bring lots of cake.
I quench my love for old buildings in European cities, old colonial towns ( Colombo is a treasure). Visiting turn of the century apartments in Barcelona was a huge treat. Antonio Gaudi, that maestro, that genius… from the Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell to Casa Batlo, Casa Mila- again, elegant gracious homes, well planned and spacious, not the shoes boxes we have been consigned to nowadays.
And here I am at Casa Amatller on a chilly December Sunday morning on the Paseig de Gracia, on another trip to Barcelona. I go for the chocolate, and stumble into this fairytale casa instead. I have currently eschewed guidebooks and tours so have literally stumbled blindly around on this trip.
I only go there in search of tickets to the chocolate factory and am pleasantly surprised to see the entrance to a home, up the stairs. Ticket in hand, I wander around, Alice- like.
What an absolutely beautiful polished jewel of a home!
This is a town house of a rich Patron, a merchant, a man of means.
I can smell the cigars, hear the fire crackling as I explore this stunning multi-storied building on the Paseig de Gracias, one of three stunning examples of catalan neo-modernism, right next door to Gaudi’s Casa Batlo ( that I have visited). What makes this even more special is that it has been perfectly preserved and maintained fully furnished. I don’t have to imagine the lace curtains and the fine china.
Walk with me.
I walk in, mesmerised by it all. What grand living, what a fine era to have lived in, what elegance and refinement. Bevelled windows, stained glass polished like jewels. The winter sun shines through casting doppels in mosaic tile corridors, each step drawing me further into a labyrinth of more design.
I am spellbound by the workmanship, the thought that has gone into the making of this grand city home over a century ago. A family lived here. It was not a museum then. People ate and slept here, woke and worked, celebrated here, died here. Ate by this fireplace, by this marvellous window, all this mighty carved wood and these beautiful floors.
There are bedrooms, and parlours, and offices, and grand drawing rooms that overlook the Paseig outside. The art has been preserved, the intricate lamps, mirrors, silk-lined walls, marble basins, modern plumbing, handmade spanish tiles, glass panels to allow natural light, shafts for ventilation, a whole floor of architecture designed for LIVING.
Other floors are for the chocolate factory and the offices, some were rented out. Downstairs is now a chocolaterie that I intended to spend my morning in very happily.
Compared to Gaudi’s Casa Batlo next door, and his curved minimalism- modernsim, this is splendid home is like a fairytale castle in the middle of the city. filled with enchanting accents, curlicues, the ornate, the bewitching, the opulent. This house screams money, power and affluence. Of course, It is all handmade and beautifully executed, opulent but not gaudy; luxurious and refined.
I finish the tour, happy to have experiences an era of graciousness and mercantilism and human economy that was prosperous and defined by modern living, before all the strife of the Influenza and the Great Wars and the Spanish Civil War.
The family business still seems to flourish, at least their name does, and there is a lovely chocolaterie – cafe below stairs, the kind I would love to have for myself someday. It smells delicious, freshly baked bread, cinnamon, chocolate and coffee.
There are displays of bean to bars, drinking chocolate tablets, lovely vintage inspired art work on the sleeves, handmade truffles, gift selections and things to eat while you linger.
I spend a pleasant hour in the crisp winter chill people watching and sipping a cortada. I am happy, this is my last day in Barcelona.
I do not know what surprise awaits me for lunch but thats another story!
Resources :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACwCChKdN2A
Vincens has the most delicious chocolates and torronnes I found in Barcelona especially the red wine one!!
Thewanderingindiangourmet 