House of umbrellas / House Bruno Cuadros

The culprit is the architect Josep Vilaseca who renovated the building which, at the corner of La Rambla with Carrer Cardenal Casañas, had Bruno Cuadros Vidal as a tenant and where a specialized store in the sale of umbrellas, parasols, canes, vanos and other accessories was installed.

The building had been growing irregularly and that's why Bruno Cuadros asked the architect Josep Vilaseca to add another floor and give uniformity to the whole. The renovation was done with the consent of the property owner Alfons Piferrer.

"Vilaseca designed that the added fourth floor would be supported by a balcony gallery. At the same time, he decided to decorate the façade with the advertising of umbrellas and vanos, items that were sold at the Bruno Cuadros department stores. By mutual agreement with the owner, on the Rambla side of the façade, it was established that there would be four groups of open umbrellas and vanos, located between the balconies of the second and third floors, and on the sea-facing façade three closed umbrellas and one open at the height of the second floor and a similar set to the one on the Rambla side at the height of the third floor. Particularly noteworthy is the sculpture of a dragon, made of zinc, in a corner at the height of the first floor, which held a lantern with its front legs and an open canoe with its hind legs. Below it hangs a closed umbrella. Both the dragon and the lantern are clearly of oriental inspiration, and it is said that both the design of this mythological animal and that of the umbrellas on the Rambla side were inspired by what Josep Vilaseca had seen on a trip he had just taken to Japan. The idea convinced the owner, as among the items he sold there were some imported from Japan, such as cultured pearls. Also, Japanese decorative motifs were placed inside."

This decoration caused a sensation in late 19th-century Barcelona, and soon the building became known as the house of the umbrellas. The idea of the dragon-lantern was later repeatedly copied by modernist architects who included it in wrought iron on doors and façades. Even after modernism, they have continued to be manufactured and sold, to the point of becoming an identifying symbol in Catalonia.

In 1980, when the ground floor of the building was rented to the Caixa d'Estalvis de Sabadell by Bruno Cuadros' heirs, this financial institution proceeded with a profound rehabilitation of the decoration, respecting its original character. However, there are some doubts about the exact colors they had when first applied. The name of the blacksmith who executed Josep Vilaseca's designs in zinc is not known."Jaume Fabre