CASA NAVÀS

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- Localization: Plaça del Mercadal, 5 - Poblation: 43201 Reus - Information phone: 977 778 149 (Tourist Information Centre of Reus) - Opening hours: Check it at Reus tourist information centre Opening hours vary depending on the time of year Book in advance at Reus tourist information centre. - Rates: Check it at Reus tourist information centre.

Navàs' family were very wealthy. They prospered with a fabric store set up in the XIX century at Mercadal square. They wanted to open a new establishment at the same place, but in a Parisian style. Their project was successfully finished and, today, the store is run by a society that has preserved its dimensions and decoration disigned by Domenech i Montaner.

During the construction of Casa Navàs, Domènech i Muntaner was working simultaniously on Casa Lamadrid and Casa Lleó i Morera and on the Fonda Espanya. They were all of them in Barcelona and very similar to Casa Navàs.

However, Casa Navàs boasts a special charisma, as it is the only Art Nouveau work, which has survived with all its elements intact. Besides, it is well integrated in the square with its arches.

The main façade, which links up to the square, is held up by 5 columns and 5 arches of sinuous lines, widely reproduced by local disign in catalogues, booklets and all sort of publications.

On the first floor, its lines are in baroque style and its Art Nouveau curves turn into gothic features, pinnacles, lintels bearing floral motifs… At the gallery, characters, dressed up in the early century style, protude with their stylised faces.

On the second flor, the arches from the ground floor become smaller and, above the belvedere, one can see a horseshoe arch that is a terrace full of flower pots. It is on this floor, where one can notice the damage caused by the bomb in 1938, which destroyed the tower, the crowning and half of the glass work.

As for the interior decoration, let us start with the basements: during the Civil War they were communicated with the public shelter at the square in order to provide space for as many people as possible. Nowadays, they are no longer in use.

At the entrance hall, one can distinguish the burst of colour, which become more intense while going upstairs. Once we are inside, one can appreciate the walls of the staircase, the spouted-shaped mosaics on the walls, almond-trees and oleanders in bloom, and the flower-shaped floor, the glass work of the ceiling, shapped like a withered rose and the finesse of the marble handrail. So many elemenents shapped like flowers and leaves that make us feel as if we were inside of the "garden of stone and glass", as the house is often called.

On the second floor, the mosaic turns into a sky with birds flying. The naturalistic repertoire inside the house is inexhautible. It is conducted throught ceramics, its mosaic, its wood woork, its furniture and by the light and the colour of the glass work.

Other interesting parts of the first floor are the dinner-room, decorated with motifs of oranges, with a small chimeney, and the luminous exit to the balcony at the corner; the room that contains the finest Gaspar Homar's furniture; the living-room, with its impressive mosaic on the ceiling; the kitchen with its service lift and the atmosphere of that time, and the bureau.