UAB building - Casa Convalescència

Casa 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. Pere Domènech collaborated with his father and substituted for him in overseeing the completion the unfinished pavilions (or uninitiated ones, as is the case with Casa Convalescència).
Although at the outset of the project, Lluís Domènech i Montaner planned to construct a building for general hospital services, maintenance shops and laundry, in the end, the Casa Convalescència pavilion was used to host patients with terminal illnesses as well as a church.

In 1969, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona was granted the rights to use the building to carry out various academic activities, an occasion which consolidated the presence of this university in the city of Barcelona.

Currently, Casa Convalescència is the headquarters of the Fundació Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, its Doctor Robert Foundation and the Josep Laporte Library, UAB Idiomes Barcelona, the delegation of UAB’s Institut de Ciències de l'Educació, and the Barcelona headquarters of the Escola de Doctorat i de Formació Continuada.

At UAB-Casa Convalescència, continuing education courses are offered as well as courses in modern languages. Also available are masters programs, seminars and conferences on diverse areas of knowledge, especially those related to health and life sciences. In addition, UAB-Casa Convalescència offers the possibility of renting its spaces for organizing congresses, conventions, seminars and all types of meetings. The Agència de Promoció d'Activitats i Congressos UAB Campus collaborates in consulting, support and organization of these events.
The facility, equipped with the most modern information and communications technology, also offers Arc's catering and restaurant-cafeteria.

UAB-Casa Convalescència, has a floor space of 6,245 m2 which is distributed among three floors and a basement. It is a unique building not only because of its equipment but because of its architecture as well. This architecture is rich in modernist elements, featuring glasswork that illuminates the monumental entryway and cupola as well as the ornate tile work that adorns all of the ground floor halls.
On a structural level, the building upholds the Catalonian modernist tradition of ceilings formed by vaults made of flat brick and metal beams that strengthen the low supporting arches, built and displayed in open sight.

The Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau

The Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau is a late 19th Century project to expand and enhance the city’s hospital complex. The growth of Barcelona and advances in medicine had made the older Hospital de la Santa Creu, built in 1401, obsolete.

The construction of a new and modern hospital was made possible thanks to the arrival of the banker and patron Pau Gil, who donated more than three million pesetas for the construction of a health services complex in Barcelona. After years of negotiations, an agreement was reached to construct a new and unique building, namely the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau.

The hospital, which had a 1000 patient capacity, was built on land located between what were then the suburbs of Horta, Sant Andreu de Palomar, Sant Marti de Provençals and Gracia. Construction was begun in 1905, and the hospital was inaugurated in 1930.

Architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner (1850-1923) was in charge of the project, which converted the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau into Catalonian modernism’s most relevant civil building.
The hospital represents the architect’s most ambitious project, although other noteworthy projects include the Institut Pere Matas (Reus, 1897), Casa Navàs (Reus, 1900), Casa Thomas (Barcelona, 1899), Casa Lleó i Morera (Barcelona, 1902), Fonda Espanya (Barcelona, 1902), the Palau de la Música Catalana (Barcelona, 1905) and Casa Fuster (Barcelona, 1908).

The hospital complex was declared an Historic Artistic Monument in 1978 and later named part of UNESCO’s Cultural Heritage for Humanity in 1997.