When Domènech i Montaner was commissioned to build the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, he set out to travel Europe to discover the latest advances in hospital architecture. After his European trip, and taking as a model his project for the Pere Mata Institute in Reus, he designed a hospital in the form of a garden city, with freestanding pavilions interconnected by a network of underground galleries. Sant Pau had to be a modern, cutting-edge centre to respond to the needs of the city.
For the architect, in addition to being functional and set in gardens, the hospital had to be beautiful. Domènech believed that beauty contributed to the well-being of patients and, therefore, to their healing process.
Nature, the source of inspiration for all Art Nouveau artists, enters the pavilions and day rooms of the sick. The ceilings, for example, are clad with ceramic tiles that feature hundreds of leaves and flowers in shades of green and white—light, relaxing colours and tones. The walls are covered in tiles decorated with embossed floral and plant motifs, such as roses and daisies, bay and chestnut trees. The most used colours, in this case, are green, blue, mauve and pink, once again colours that create an environment conducive to repose.
This calm and the sensation of wellbeing is what you feel when you stroll through the gardens of Sant Pau and admire the beauty of the Art Nouveau Site, present in a thousand artistic details. Do you want to discover this sensation too?