The Three Masters of Barcelona Architecture: Domènech i Montaner

Gaudí can be considered the city's名片. A packaged tour of Gaudí's architecture is almost every visitor's choice when traveling to Barcelona. While you marvel at the breathtaking curves, the intricate and soft wrought iron patterns, and the dazzling colorful tiles in Gaudí's buildings, you will surely overlook two other architects from the same period as Gaudí, who together are known as the three masters of Barcelona architecture. Their works are more restrained and traditional, less eye-catching.

One of them was a teacher at the Barcelona School of Architecture, where Gaudí studied, and two years older than Gaudí: Domènech i Montaner. His most representative buildings are the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau and the Palau de la Música Catalana. Montaner was a designer who integrated humanistic care into his architecture. At that time, there was already a concert hall on La Rambla in the old town, a place frequented by aristocrats and the wealthy. A folk choir commissioned Montaner to design a concert hall for the common people. The building's facade is richly decorated, with extensive use of rose reliefs characteristic of Catalonia, combined with Arabic-style colonnades and tiles, making the palace of music, situated on a narrow street, very striking and dazzling.

The Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau was established because, with the demolition of the old city walls, a large number of immigrants poured in, and Barcelona needed a large hospital to treat patients with infectious diseases. The hospital was located in an area far from the city center, at a time when the Sagrada Família had already broken ground. The Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau sits on a hillside about 500 meters in a straight line from the Sagrada Família. The architect Montaner came from a wealthy banking family. He used part of his inheritance from his father to fund the hospital's construction. Although the hospital mainly served the poor who could not afford medical expenses, Montaner did not cut corners on the building; instead, he purchased the finest materials, maximizing both function and aesthetics, and ensuring ample space for each patient. So much so that when the king attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony, he remarked that the poor lived in palaces while the king lived in ordinary cottages.

The hospital project was not yet completed when Montaner died and was continued by his son. His instruction to his son was that, no matter what, they should never use inferior materials just because they lacked money.

Montaner's persistence has given modern people another attraction to visit. This place is not as popular as Gaudí's buildings. So you can escape the crowds of the Sagrada Família, stroll leisurely in the spacious hospital, and rest in the shade amidst the elegant buildings.