Asil del Sant Crist, Care home and church in the Pla de Sant Agustí, Igualada, Spain.
Asil del Sant Crist occupies a whole block between Carrer de Milà i Fontanals, Prat de la Riba and Sor Rita Mercader. Two side wings, four storeys high, are joined at the front by the facade and entrance hall, at the back by the church and in the middle by an interior cloister. The stone, mostly from Pla del Magre (Jorba), is both building material and decoration; the facade opens into three galleries of arches and pinnacles, with a crenellated tower at one end.
Construction began in 1931 with funding from the Castells sisters, Magdalena, Dolors and Concepció, of an influential local industrial family. The Spanish Civil War halted work between 1936 and 1939, and the building was not finished until 1941, when it was inaugurated by Father Amadeu Amenós i Roca. In 1943 the sisters' representatives began converting it into a home for the elderly, now run by the Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly.
The chapel's stained glass windows depict the saints matching the names of the architect, the Castells sisters and their heirs. In the courtyard stands Joan Puigdollers' sculpture of Saint Teresa Jornet, founder of the congregation, with two elderly people; above the entrance door, Ernest Marco carved the Virgin of the Forsaken.
The complex occupies a whole block between Carrer de Milà i Fontanals, Carrer de Prat de la Riba and Carrer de Sor Rita Mercader, west of Igualada's old centre. It is a working residence run by the Little Sisters of the Destitute Aged, so the church and cloister are not open as a monument; visits depend on the community's consent.
One of the stone columns bears the signature of architect Joan Rubió, making it a rare mark of craftsmanship. This personal mark allows visitors to trace the direct involvement of a leading modernist designer in the building's creation.
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