The Neighbor of the Chalet with a Bird Door and a Cinema…

By Ferran Garcés

Nowadays, Torre Bellesguard is surrounded by streets and houses. However, at the time of its construction, between 1900 and 1909, it was a house in the middle of the countryside, visible from afar. One of its first neighbors may have been a friend of Gaudí, with whom he collaborated on three projects. Unfortunately, none of them have survived to this day. Two of them would have been very close to Torre Bellesguard.

That friend was Lluís Graner i Arrufí. In his time, he was a successful painter who, thanks to the money he earned from his paintings, ventured into theatrical business. He was also closely linked to the Sarrià and Sant Gervasi neighborhoods, as his family moved there when he was about 10 or 11 years old. His first commission for Gaudí was a summer house, following the trend of the bourgeoisie of his time.

The Bird Door

By 1904, Gaudí had already built Casa Figueras, the name Torre Bellesguard was known by at the time (he would complete the rest of the project between 1908 and 1909). That same year, he started work on Casa Batlló, one of his most famous works, and another much lesser-known one: the so-called Chalet Graner, named after Gaudí’s painter friend.

The chalet was to be located in front of Escuelas Pías, at Calle Santa Eulalia, No. 40 (today called Calle de la Inmaculada, No. 44-46), just a five-minute walk from Torre Bellesguard. The following photo gives us an approximate idea of what that walk would have been like at the time:

Due to financial problems, only the foundations of the chalet and the entrance gate to the estate were built. In this gate, Gaudí, a nature lover, designed three different entrances: one for pedestrians, another for carriages, and, at the top, a smaller one for birds.

The gate stood for only a short time. The only known photograph of it was taken in 1927, and it is the one featured at the beginning of this article. Shortly afterward, it was destroyed. However, this curious gate was replicated in Comillas, Cantabria, where it is still preserved today under the name “Puerta de Moro”, in honor of its owner, Paulino Moro y Quijano, a relative of the owner of El Capricho, Gaudí’s well-known building in Comillas.

The replica was built by Julián Bardier Pardo, a bricklayer who had worked for Gaudí, and his uncle, José Pardo Casanovas, the contractor for El Capricho.

Gaudí’s “Cinema”

As a paradox of life, in 1904, Lluís Graner also commissioned Gaudí to design the project that would ruin him: a performance hall at Rambla dels Estudis, No. 4 (now No. 122). In honor of Barcelona’s patron saint, the venue was named Sala Mercè, and it is probably one of Gaudí’s most unusual works.

The basement housed a “fantastic grotto,” featuring various attractions such as dioramas with life-size sculptures depicting the Flight to Egypt, the Birth of Our Lord, and the Annunciation.

On the main floor was the “cinema”, although this term may not be the most accurate. In addition to films and documentaries, “musical visions” were performed, combining poetry, music, and lighting effects.

Despite the initial excitement, Sala Mercè turned out to be unprofitable, leading to the financial ruin of its promoter, Lluís Graner. In 1913, this innovative venue closed its doors and was replaced by the Atlàntic Cinema, which operated until 1987. Eventually, the entire building was demolished to construct the Citadines Hotel, which is still in operation today.

The Reinforced Concrete Bridge

Finally, in 1906, Lluís Graner, along with other residents of the former Calle Santa Eulalia, commissioned Gaudí to build the Pomaret Bridge. We discussed it in last Friday’s article, so we won’t go into details. We will just recall that, had it been built, this bridge would have been located very close to Torre Bellesguard, much like the Chalet Graner. However, a viaduct very similar to the planned bridge still survives in the area.

All these works—along with others we haven’t mentioned—were built almost simultaneously, during what is considered Gaudí’s golden period. Although some have been lost, they serve as clear examples of Gaudí’s talent, proving his ability to build anything.

As for the other protagonist of our story, Lluís Graner, what became of him? The brief owner of the bird gate, overwhelmed by debt, fled to the United States in 1910. There, he rebuilt his finances by painting portraits. He returned to Barcelona eighteen years later, suffering from serious health problems.

In an almost poetic twist, Graner died in 1929 and was buried in the Sant Gervasi Cemetery, next to Torre Bellesguard and the street where he and his friend Gaudí once dreamed of a house with a bird door and a bridge that, as Antoni Tobella put it,

“was meant to connect the neighborhoods of Sarrià and Sant Gervasi, to which he had been so deeply linked since his childhood.”

References

(1) Tobella, Antoni (30/06/2019), “Lluís Graner and Antoni Gaudí in Sarrià and Sant Gervasi”, Diari El Jardí website.

More information, with bibliography: Anonymous, “Lluís Graner i Arrufí”, Publications website of the Theatre Institute, Barcelona Provincial Council.

(2) Bassegoda i Nonell, Joan (1989), El Gran Gaudí, Sabadell, Ausa, p. 471.

(3) Van Hensbergen, Gijs van (2002), Antoni Gaudí, Debolsillo, Barcelona, p. 165-166.

More information: Minguet Batllori, Joan M. “La «Sala Mercè», the first cinematograph of the Barcelona bourgeoisie. (With some clarifications about Segundo de Chomón’s early years in Barcelona)”, Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes website.

(4) Tobella, Antoni, Op. cit.