Ten years after the initial intervention in the Palau de la Música Catalana, the complete relocation of the neighboring church was achieved, which enabled our most significant contribution to the monument: giving the Palau a new facade, fully opening the very rich side courtyard by Lluís Domènech i Montaner to the new square.  

The Catalan architect had dreamed of a freestanding building and, a century later, we made his dream come true.  

Of all the work we carried out over thirty years at the Palau de la Música, the most spectacular was uncovering one of its side facades that had always been hidden. Domènech was determined to build his dream –a concert hall encased in glazed facades– despite the fact that the long, opaque party wall with the neighboring convent of Sant Françesc made it almost impossible. To bring light into this side, the architect moved back just three meters from this party wall, creating a longitudinal courtyard – a courtyard which, although it provided faint lighting for the upper floors, was never visible. Despite this, Domènech constructed this inner facade with the same luxurious materials and details as the opposite, the street-facing one. The same meticulous brickwork, the same stone capitals, the same wrought iron railings… This beautiful facade remained hidden for a century, until a fortunate agreement with the bishopric of Barcelona allowed the parish to relocate to a new neighborhood. The church was demolished (burned down during the Spanish Civil War and only partially reconstructed afterward with a monumentalist pastiche of very low architectural value) and a charming little square where the facade could be contemplated was opened. Domènech’s wilful and unpredictable dream was finally fulfilled.  

Just as on the north side of the square, ten years earlier, we had built a building for the musicians (with dressing rooms, a library… ), on the south side we built one for the public (with a foyer, restaurant, restrooms, and elevators). And beneath the new square, we created a hall for 540 spectators equipped with the modern technologies the Palau greatly needed.