"The 'Castell dels Tres Dragons' (three Dragons Castle) built as a Café-Restaurant of the Universal Exhibition of 1888 by Lluis Domenech i Muntaner, a leading architect of Catalan modernism, is considered one of the best examples of pre-modernism."
From the Natural History Museum website here: (
visit link)
"The Castle of the Three Dragons (Spanish: Castillo de los Tres Dragones, Catalan: Castell dels Tres Dragons) is the popular name that receives the modernisme building built between 1887-1888 as Café-Restaurant for the Exposición Universal de Barcelona in 1888 by Lluís Domènech i Montaner. This name was probably adopted from the 1865 novel by Serafí Pitarra.
In his time was one of the main buildings of the exhibition, and before him had vanished Palace of Fine Arts. He was at the end of the ride primary1 running from the Arc de Triomf to the Parc de la Ciutadella. Work began in September 1887, and suffered many delays, so the April 8, the day of the inauguration, he was not ready, delaying its opening until August 17. For this reason Domènech i Montaner resigned as architect responsible.
At the end of exposure, Domenech himself installed a insdustriales arts workshop related to architecture, with the possible collaboration of Antoni Maria Gallissà i Tighten. Later it was dedicated to museum purposes, being on museum of history, archeology, biology and natural sciences. During the Spanish Civil War was closed, suffering some damage by bombing aviation Franco. From 1942 to 1945 he was chair of Social Aid to be definitely aimed at Museum of Zoology. In the 1980s it was restored by architects Cristian Cirici, Pep Bonet and Carles Bassó. Until 2010 hosted zoology collections of the Museum of Natural Sciences in Barcelona (Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales de Cataluña), when they were transferred to the Forum Building.
Built with brick and sheet iron, is a castle-shaped building crowned with battlements. Plant is almost square, with four towers at the corners and perimeter walkways running between a double facade. In its innovative transparent structure of brick and iron frame also in sight, come a few years to make similar proposal Hendrik Petrus Berlage in his project for the Amsterdam Stock Exchange.
The ceramic decoration-patterned Joan Llimona and Alexandre de Riquer (1888), and Pius Font i Quer and Joan Baptista Aguilar-Amat (1927), sculpture by Antoni Vilanova, Alfons execution Juyol (1888) and Gonzalez Brothers (1927 ) and i Pujol ceramic Bausis-is located on the battlements and shield-shaped panels to the top, that break in blue on white a naturalistic program of plants and animals, including a number of drinks and liquors. The windows, missing hand, are the work of Antoni Rigalt i Blanch."
From wikipedia here: (
visit link) Until 2010 hosted zoology collections of the Museum of Natural Sciences in Barcelona (Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales de Catalu