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Casa Vicens (1883)

The highlight of the southwest facade is a small tribune that is open to the outdoors, with swinging wooden blinds in the same style as the window shutters. On the roof of this gallery, there are dwarf palm tree leaves drawn to simulate an uncovered balcony.

Since 1899, Casa Vicens has been the property of the Jover family, which has tried to maintain it in good condition, while respecting Gaudí's design. In fact, in 1925, they even asked the architect to enlarge the house himself, after they had purchased the part of the land that was occupied by the convent, which had since been torn down. He rejected the commission because at that time he was fully occupied with his work on the Sagrada Familia, and he recommended the young architect, Joan Serra de Martínez.

This remodeling basically consisted of enlarging the entire building along one corridor, closing the gallery, changing the location of the stairway that gave access to the bedrooms and adding a bedroom to the north. Serra de Martínez consulted with Gaudí and obtained his approval before carrying out the project.

Further renovations had to be done, this time due to the widening of Carrer de les Carolines. This time the access to the house was changed. While in Gaudí's original designs, the house was perpendicular to the street, it had to be rotated 90 degrees to the south, so the former entrance was changed into windows. Serra de Martínez designed bars for these openings, which now opened directly onto the street (as can still be observed today). The circular faucet that adorned this part of the garden was also eliminated.

Nowadays, Casa Vicens is surrounded by tall buildings, but it still maintains the peculiar charm of Gaudí's first work.