Venue
The conference will be held in the Casa de Convalescència in Barcelona and it will be hosted by Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Barcelona is located in the northeastern region of the Iberian peninsula, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It is Spain's second largest city in both size and population (1.5 million inhabitants), and is the administrative and cultural capital of Catalonia, an old country that nowadays is one of the 17 Autonomous Communities that make up Spain. There are two oficial languages spoken in Barcelona: Catalan, generally spoken in all of Catalonia, and Spanish. Catalan's closest linguistic relative today is the langue d'oc, the old language of southern France. The capital of Catalonia is unequivocally a Mediterranean city, not only because of its geographic location but also and above all because of its history, tradition and cultural influences. The documented history of the city dates back to the founding of a Roman colony on its soil in the second century B.C. The original name of the city was Colonia Iulia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino.
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| Close-up of part of the Roman wall of Barcino (4 a.d.), supporting Capella Reial de Santa Àgata | |
Modern Barcelona experienced spectacular growth and economic revival at the onset of industrialization during the second half of the 19th century. The 1888 World's Fair became a symbol of the capacity for hard work and the international outlook projected by the city. Culture and the arts flourished in Barcelona and in all of Catalonia; the splendor achieved by Catalonian Modernism is one of the most patent displays. The Barcelona of today is far more than an open air Modernist museum, but what gives it its seal is precisely this artistic current, just as in Rome it is the Renaissance or in London it is Victorian. Barcelona is, of course, Gaudí, it is Lluís Domenèch i Montaner and it is Josep Puig i Cadafalch, three architects who sum up the city’s Modernist spirit.
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| Casa Batlló- Gaudí | ||
Casa de Convalescència is one of the buildings located within the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau grounds and constitutes one of the later works of Catalonian Modernism. Its construction was directed by Pere Domènech i Roura, son of Lluís Domènech i Montaner.
| Click for seeing the video: Casa de Convalescència |