The Dolors Calm House -Rambla de Catalunya, 54- oozes lost heritage, in itself and in commercial basses. A modernist cornice, a rationalist interior and two emblematic establishments. Few buildings have lost so much in Barcelona, although the assertion is risky in a city that has not hesitated to feed the pickaxe with buildings and entire businesses sentenced for speculation, urban reforms or ignorance of the owned heritage. The stony laziness is endemic in the city. The aforementioned house, appreciated for the spectacular wooden stands on its main façade, lost its coronation by work and grace of the ‘remuntes’ with which the mayor Porcioles decided to make Barcelona ugly during the 16 years (1957-1973) that the municipal staff wore. The loss of the historic shops on the ground floor of the farm has more recent dates and other culprits: the rentier voracity sponsored by the urban lease law that has turned the city into a wasteland of commercial heritage.
First, in 2014, the Joan Prats gallery weighed anchor, that it was not the original business but yes preserved the material and immaterial historical heritage from when at the beginning of the 20th century the space became a hat shop and in the shop windows, next to the bowler hats, they displayed sculptures by Alexander Calder and in the back room Joan Miró crossed boxes with a spoon to create ‘Clock of the Wind’. Yes, yes, Joan Prats was a hat but also a patron and cultural promoter, hence his relationship with the avant-garde. And hence, also, that when Joan de Muga, in 1976, converted the shop into an art gallery, he kept the name and delicate exterior of the premises and, in addition, commissioned its interior to the architect Josep Lluís Sert. But what has been said, this city has a desire to go through any element of interest with a pick and shovel if there is profit involved, so in 2015 the premises changed to a sportswear store and the architect’s work, to rubble. They did, however, leave behind the façade and the cast-iron plaque on the street with which the city council once decided to pay homage to establishments with pedigree and which at this point (and closures) function as tombstones.
The fact is that the destruction of Sert’s work left the Roca jewelry, which became the only establishment in Barcelona with a purely rationalist design, also by Sert, who took great care in its conception both on the outside and on the inside, although since the business changed hands in 2009, the furniture rests in the Museu Nacional. But where the heritage of the modern architectural movement still shines in 1902, one of the monuments of modernism: the cafe Torino. That, oh surprise, was not preserved either. In 1911, its promoter, Flaminio Mezzalama, died, and with him the temple of art they built succumbed Antoni Gaudí, Pere Falqués and Josep Puig i Cadafalch. There is nothing.
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All in all, the one on Passeig de Gràcia and Gran Via is not the only modernist establishment of which not a single trace remains in a city that presumes to be the cradle and capital of this movement. The list of absentees seems endless but the locksmith deserves a note Casa Mañach, an oneiric delirium signed by Jujol in the street of Ferran; the pharmacy Grau Ynglada, a watermark by Alexandre de Riquer, in Nou de la Rambla street and the also Gibert pharmacy decorated by Gaudí whose location is not clear because it had a very short life, but which some sources place on the ground floor of the modernist Sicart house, demolished in 1991 for the greater glory of the department stores that fill Plaça de Catalunya and needed to expand space. The unfortunate operation saw fit to leave a minimal vestige of the building: it saved the modernist tribune and embedded it in the modern façade. And there it looks like Testimony of how much Barcelona has allowed itself to lose and how little it has managed to change.
But this requiem began with the Dolors Calm house and its lost establishments, the aforementioned Joan Prats gallery and a second: the Ferreteria Villa as emblematic and protected as the first and just as disappeared. The store had to relocate unaffordable rent in 2018, and with her they marched century-old hardware collection that adorned the shop windows and store since 1912, and all the interior wooden furniture. The cast-iron plaque (by now, tombstone) is still on the sidewalk. Barcelona, commercial cemetery.