À la frontière entre la France et l’Espagne : la création d’une architecture nationale catalane. Étude des écrits du critique et historien d’art Raimon Casellas (1901-1905)

Abstract

In 1901, the Catalanist party, the Regionalist League, won the municipal elections in Barcelona. Seeing Catalonia as culturally different from the rest of Spain, it aimed to make the region an independent nation-state. In this context, a definition of typical Catalan architecture, distinct from Spanish architecture, supported the Catalanist discourse. It seems relevant then to wonder how discourse about architecture took part in demonstrating that Catalonia is an entirely different region from Spain, a region which can legitimately claim independent nation-state status. The analysis of the writings of the Catalan and pro-independence art critic, journalist, collector and author Raimon Casellas (1855-1910), preserved for the years between 1901 and 1905, shows, through their architectural studies, that there was a Catalan cultural identity, independent of political borders. Catalan architecture, which emerged in reaction to both of its bordering countries, Spain and France, is specific and genuine. Paradoxically, it was the French discourse and not the Spanish discourse which contributed indirectly to the identification of a Catalan national architecture with an objective of furthering the Catalanist message in favour of the independence of Catalonia.

Keywords

• Catalonia
• nationalism
• Raimon Casellas
• regional architecture
• Franco-Spanish border
• Catalan national architecture