The original house had been built in 1875 according to the outlines of the ornamental sobriety required by the Cerdà Plan.
In the actually Casa Museu Amatller you can see the transformation from a traditional society based on the old regime to a much more open, dynamic one typical of the industrial and contemporary world of the early 20th century.
The figure of Mr. Antoni Amatller and the construction of his modernist house in the Eixample of Barcelona are a true example of a period that was full of splendour and history, which would mark a before and after in the city of Barcelona.
The Amatller Family
3 generations dedicated to the Chocolate industry
Antoni Amatller, the promoter of Casa Amatller, represented the third generation of a family dedicated to the Chocolate industry.
His grandfather, who settled in Barcelona at the end of the 18th century as a master chocolatier, came from a family of farmers in Molins de Rei, a village near Barcelona. During his life he worked with great care and dedication in the artisan production of this sweet. After his death, his two sons continued their father’s business and introduced improvements by creating the first industrial production, with the opening of a first factory.
It should be noted that at the beginning of the 19th century, industrialisation (19th century) was reaching all the productive areas of Barcelona, which led to the emergence of a new social class: the rich industrial bourgeoisie. Due to the fact that the city of Barcelona was limited by its walls, businessmen were forced to install their factories in areas of the outskirts of Barcelona such as Poble Nou, Poble Sec or even areas close to the rivers Llobregat and Besòs.
When Antoni Amatller (1851-1910) inherited the family factory at the end of the 19th century, the first thing he did was to learn the trade from his father and uncle, at the same time as he decided to learn about European industrial innovations first hand, thus making continuous trips around the continent.
Thanks to this knowledge and with the wish to incorporate the latest innovations, Antoni Amatller decided to open a new production plant in Sant Martí de Provençals in 1978, with which he was able to increase the competitiveness of the business and impose himself on the competition, becoming one of the leaders of industrial chocolate making in Spain.
Along with technological advances in machinery, Antoni Amatller also introduced modern marketing and branding techniques, which would allow Chocolates Amatller to be recognised as one of the most prosperous companies of the 19th century. To do this, he included advertising images on the chocolate wrappers, he created posters and collectible picture cards, with the illustrations of the best local (Apel-les Mestres) and international (Alphonse Maria Mucha) artists of the time.
Today these posters are part of collections, where some of these original wrappers can still be found in the hands of institutions and individuals.In Barcelona, when speaking of Catalan modernism, we must always refer to three great architects: Antoni Gaudí, Lluis Domènech i Montaner and Josep Puig i Cadafalch, who gave life to three of the most beautiful buildings on Passeig de Gracia: Casa Batlló, Casa LLeo i Morera, and Casa Amatller, which are located within the so-called Illa de la Discòrdia.
Puig i Cadaflch (Arquitect)
Between 1898 and 1900 the architect Puig i Cadafalch carried out a complete to the Casa Amatller, transformation that can be seen above all in the façade, the main floor and the ground floor, which became the entrance.
The decoration with different architectural and artistic resources and asymmetries fit into the architecture of Catalan modernism. Until 1910, when Antoni Amatller lived, there were no changes in the house.
Puig i Cadafalch made use of the construction methods that appeared with industrialisation, on which he applied the decoration of the modernist period. His buildings are linked to the land, with the reference of the Catalan Pairal house; but there is also a feeling of aristocratic and feudal prestige developed in his medievalist decoration.
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