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The history of the Casa Ramon Casas, located at Paseo de Gracia 96, begins when the painter fell in love with the place to build his private home. Dr. Masot’s pharmacy had been located in that place since 1881.

Ramon Casas’ father bought the building and at the same time acquired the neighboring Casa Codina, property of the Ferrer family, to build his residence.

Casas, belonging to the Catalan upper bourgeoisie, contacted Antoni Rovira i Rabassa (son of Antoni Rovira i Trias), so that he could carry out a building project in which, as was customary in those times, he would live in the main floor and the ground floor and the rest would be used for rent.

Rovira i Rabassa designed a building with a stone-carved façade. On the ground floor, four doors with a semicircular arch gave entrance to the commercial premises. In the center, the entrance door to the floors was made of wood finished with wrought iron ornaments adorned with golden metalwork.

On the main floor, Rovira designed a continuous carved stone balcony in the three exits of the central part, topped at the ends by two covered viewpoints on whose roof the upper balconies rest.

On the two upper floors he built individual balconies with stone railings. For the two extreme balconies he used the envelope of the lower viewpoint as its floor.

On the third floor he built a series of narrow windows with an upper part that included decorations that also served as vents. The building was topped by a stone enclosure with a straight railing and a series of decorative figures.

The main floor was reached through a stone staircase, the entire decoration of the premises made of ceramics and wrought iron by Josep Orriols and the Flinch brothers respectively stood out, especially the living room, the work of the decorator Josep Pasco i Mensa, in which the The artist installed a fireplace in which he combined wrought iron with carved stone in which plant and animal elements appear.

Casas lived on the main floor with his friend and running companion Santiago Rusiñol, whom he could easily meet in the old gathering place of the old Olímpic bar, which later changed its name, but not its clients, to become La Punyalada.

After the death of his father, Casas stays to live with his mother, Elisa Carbó. The painter is now 32 years old and decides to set up his painting workshop in the interior garden of the property.

After the death of his mother in 1912, Casas’ desire arose to break with the past, aware that the place would be the object of surveillance and gossip, since at that time he was already living with Júlia Peraire, a lottery saleswoman 22 years younger than him, whom he made his model.

He decides to leave the building and move in with her. Finally, ten years later they officially married.

Subsequently, the recovery of the patios was carried out, among which was the old Ramon Casas studio, the work of the Welsh landscape studio of Harry and David Rich. The corner patio was converted into a wild corner in which a selection of plants were placed on the side of the wall: lilies, hibiscus, tibutinas, magnolia, maples, grevilleas and in a series of terracotta pots in a modernist ceramic work by the artist Josep Orriols.

Since the departure of Ramon Casas, the ground floors are rented by a huge number of companies: