4th Modernista Fair 2008 with 5th Street Trade Festival

We are back again with a new edition of the Modernista Fair! This year 2008, it is dedicated to the centenary of the construction of the Palau de la Música Catalana, designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner, and also including many new features!

One is the presence of new towns with an Art Nouveau heritage: the beautiful seaside town of Bad Nauheim, visiting us from Germany; the Autonomous City of Melilla, one of Spain’s cities with the most Modernista buildings, thanks to the influence of Catalonia’s Enric Nieto, who went to work there in 1909, and also Figaró, with its Town Hall, an example of summer Modernisme.

Repeat visitors include the Barcelona Modernisme Route, the Fair’s organiser; the Art Nouveau European Route; Casa Asia, housed in the Palau Baró de Quadras, designed by Josep Puig i Cadafalch; Caixa de Sabadell, with the Modernista heritage of its Foundation; the museums of Esplugues de Llobregat and La Pobla de Lillet, with its Jardins Artigas, designed by Antoni Gaudí; and, finally, Proeixample.

You will be able to read the article entitled “Modernisme és l’Eixample” (The Eixample is Modernisme) by the art history professor Mireia Freixa in the Fair’s magazine, which, as always, will be distributed free of charge to shops in the Dreta de l’Eixample area. Free visits to the Sagrada Família will be organised and discounts offered to visit the Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site and Palau Montaner, designed by Domènech i Montaner, as well as Gaudí’s Güell Pavilions. 

The market of La Concepción is celebrating its 120th anniversary and will be giving away a free photo with each purchase on Saturday. We will be roasting a whole cow outside on the corner of Aragó and Girona, there will be a Modernista gymkhana, as well as activities such as the children’s show El Bernat de ruta pel Modernisme, or workshops like “Make Your Own Stained Glass”, CorEixample, a magnetic badge workshop and one on Modernista mandalas, organised by the Municipal Institute of the Urban Landscape (IMPU), in addition to what is on offer from Caixa de Sabadell Welfare Projects.

The parade of giants should not be missed either, this time including the group of giants from the Sagrada Família, the giants from Ferran Sunyer primary school and the animation group Xaranga Gaudí. As usual there will be Modernista routes, a display of old guilds, with the collaboration of the Association of Old Guilds of Catalonia, and Coreixample will organise a photography competition entitled “The Fair and Retail Festival” and you can also visit the exhibition “La Dreta de l’Eixample Modernista” at the headquarters of the Eixample District from 20 May to 2 June, jointly organised by the IMPU and displaying photographs from 1885 to 1930.

We are also once again installing a large marquee in Girona with some striking vehicles, such as the Genoveva fire truck, a Hispano-Suiza from the collection of the Melcior Colet Foundation, a Rosalia taxi from the Metropolitan Taxi Institute, a bus from the Sagalés company and, as a novelty, two-wheeled relics such as a 150cc Peugeot motorcycle from 1921 and a 75cc Peugeot moped from 1930, owned by Auto Girona, to be exhibited throughout the Modernista Fair.

And remember it will be a lot more fun to attend dressed in period costume, so that we can take a photo and you can receive a free ticket to visit Casa Batlló!

Enjoy the Fair!