La Rotonda Reborn: Barcelona Rehabilitates a Modernist Gem
Núñez y Navarro has today removed the tarp that covered the Andreu tower, the iconic building by architect Adolf Ruiz Casamitjana, popularly known as La Rotonda, which was acquired in 1999. The Group has invested six years of work in the rehabilitation of the facade and the modernist pavilion of the symbolic building.
The performance has allowed the building to regain, a century later, its original modernist appearance from 1906. In the intervention, there has been a commitment to the maximum possible recovery of the exterior and interior of the initial building. To this end, the original volume, the main facades, and the recoverable interior of the construction are rescued and protected.
Discovering the facade of La Rotonda (photo by Anna Mas)
In the historical presentation, Txell Jubany, a cultural manager, commented: "The intervention means returning the building to its original modernist appearance, that is, the one initially planned by Adolf Ruiz Casamitjana following the commission by Dr. Andreu. Barcelona recovers for future generations a historical jewel that is a symbol of the city".
Txell Juvany (photo by Anna Mas)
Heritage open to the city
La Rotonda joins around twenty projects in which the Núñez y Navarro Group has restored for Barcelona, in the last 30 years, part of its architectural heritage; among which, some as emblematic as the Casa Lleó i Morera, in the Mançana de la Discòrdia on Passeig de Gràcia, or the Hotel 1898 on La Rambla of Barcelona, to name just a couple.
Restore the splendor of 'the gateway to Tibidabo'
How was the building born? Where does it come from? The Andreu Tower, popularly known as La Rotonda, has its origins in 1900, when the pharmaceutical entrepreneur Salvador Andreu Grau asked permission from the Barcelona City Council to build a small house on the corner of what were then the promenade of the Provincial Council (Passeig de Sant Gervasi) and Riego Street (Avenida del Tibidabo). The lands had belonged to the vineyard called Can Gomis or El Frare Blanc, which stretched from Passeig de Sant Gervasi to the summit of Tibidabo, and which the Parés Gayol family had sold to the El Tibidabo limited company.
The plans for the building, classified as housing, were signed by the architect Adolf Ruiz Casamitjana. It is believed, according to the plans submitted after 1906 by the same architect, that it will be at this time when the hotel La Rotonda, an L-shaped building with two rectangular bodies forming 45-degree angles to articulate with another cylindrical body topped with a loggia, or rotunda, the architectural element that has identified it over the years.
Around the year 1910, La Rotonda was already a representative and luxurious building on the edge of the new expansion of Barcelona and at the foot of the Tibidabo mountain. It was the gateway to Tibidabo and the city. From an artistic point of view, in this first period, the markedly modernist decoration of the facades stands out, with pinnacles and mosaics of playful and sporting themes. The small temple with the intensely decorated dome with mosaics, ceramics, flowers, and zoomorphic sculptures is the work of the great ceramist Lluís Bru i Salellas, who was one of the regular artisan collaborators of the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner.
Successive reforms and hospital use degraded the building and led to the near disappearance of its original modernist interior. A century later, La Rotonda finally and deservedly recovers its former splendor. Let's enjoy it together.
Modernist template by the great ceramist Lluís Bru i Salellas (photo by Anna Mas)
