Casa de les Punxes, Modernista residential building in Eixample, Spain.
Casa de les Punxes is a Catalan modernist residential building in the Dreta de l'Eixample neighborhood of Barcelona, occupying a corner site where three busy streets meet. Six towers with conical spires rise from a facade of red brick and carved stone, featuring balconies, wrought iron grilles and windows with colored glass.
Josep Puig i Cadafalch designed the building in 1905 for the three Terradas sisters, who had inherited their father's plot. He joined three existing houses into a single structure with a unified facade, assigning each family its own entrance and living space.
The Catalan name Punxes refers to the pointed spires, which make the structure resemble a northern European castle more than a Barcelona apartment house. Stone carvings along the facade show local symbols such as Saint George, and inscriptions celebrate Catalonia in a way that visitors can still read today.
The building sits at Avinguda Diagonal 420, near Diagonal metro station and several bus lines that run toward central Barcelona. Visitors can view the facades from the surrounding pavement or tour the interior during opening hours.
The architect used cast iron columns and metal beams instead of load-bearing walls, creating an open floor plan that was novel in Barcelona at the time. Each of the three sisters received a separate dwelling inside the unified facade, which appears from the street as a single castle.
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