* The author is part of the community of readers of La Vanguardia
The Eusebio Castell house, another of the mutilated buildings in the city of Barcelona, ​​is located on the corner of Calle Bruc, 36-38, with Calle Caspe, 38.
It is one of those houses that, when you contemplate it, you wonder: What could have happened to the architect when, in the middle of construction, he made such an abrupt change with such a surreal finish? Had they run out of money to finish it? How did such hopeful beginnings end with such a humble ending, especially if someone told you that said building was built by the architect Adolf Ruiz i Casamitjana?
Adolf Ruiz was an assistant modernist architect from the city of Badalona who, among other works, designed the Rotonda del Doctor Andreu building, located at the beginning of Tibidabo Avenue with Passeig de Sant Gervasi, of which he commented a little on its history on the occasion of the articles on Calle Balmes.
Among other modernist works in Barcelona, ​​this architect built:
And in Badalona he is remembered for being the architect who built:
But to learn a little more about the history of the Eusebio Castell house, we should first go back to its origins and, later, to the municipal mess.
Adolf Ruiz built the building in 1905 with a height of five stories, topping it off with a dome in the center of the chamfered façade and finished with a lightning rod, very common at that time in tall buildings, which, in anticipation of strong storms, they culminated with this figure (already disappeared in our time) in the endings with a dome and that gave a special category to the building.
In the center of the façade of the main floor and on the first floor, two stone gazebos and ornate windows stood out in the center of the latter, topped on the second floor with a worked stone balcony.
The rest of the floors, with different balconies and windows. And the last floor was again finished differently, with two balconies in wrought iron and the central one, also finished in worked stone, following the style of the lower floors.
This marvelous building, like many of those built by modernist architects, found itself at a time when speculation was incomprehensibly installed in the city and with municipal governments that allowed comebacks without forcing the owners of the time to preserve the characteristics. of the buildings, thus destroying their artistic wealth.
At that time, the City Council gave in to the requests of all those owners who wanted to increase the height of their buildings, regardless of the cost that this represented for the destruction of the architectural wealth of the city.
