Domènech i Montaner’s Legacy in Manresa

The Manresa headquarters hosts part of the legacy of Lluís Domènech i Montaner (1849-1923), which has been preserved in the COAC Archive since the year 2000 and is representative of an era characterized by the broad public cultural presence of architects, among whom Domènech i Montaner stands out for his disciplinary versatility, expressed in the practice of architecture, politics, heraldry, and Catalan Romanesque art. This documentation is part of the exhibition “The Legacy of Domènech i Montaner” inaugurated in 2023 at the Barcelona headquarters, as part of the centenary of the architect’s death.

Architecture and politics constitute Domènech i Montaner’s public presence, while heraldry and Romanesque art are the tools he uses to craft a coherent discourse on the identity of Catalonia. The unfolding of this versatility is not uniform over time: a first stage, with indistinct boundaries, is called ECLECTICISM in which Domènech transcends the historicist legacy of 19th-century architecture. In the second stage, the architect fully enters the PLENITUDE period, represented mainly by the two UNESCO World Heritage buildings, the Palau de la Música and the Hospital de Sant Pau. The third stage explains Domènech’s full involvement in the TRANSVERSALITY of the various disciplines he pursued, with the constant presence of ornamentation. This exhibition showcases the latter two stages.

Inaugural event, Friday, June 7 at 6:00 PM with the presence of the exhibition curator, Lluís Domènech i Girbau, who will discuss the political aspect of the architect.