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The Cases Rocamora, impressive residential complex
The Cases Antoni Rocamora, placed almost at the beginning of Passeig de Gràcia, very close to Plaça Catalunya, represent one of the most important and spectacular residential complexes of the so-called Golden Square of the Barcelona promenade.
Built between 1914 and 1917 by Bassegoda architects, it is a complex of three adjacent buildings unified by a facade of great monumentality, which goes from the chamfer of Casp Street until almost touching the Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes. It is considered the largest private architectural complex of the Passeig de Gràcia that also stands out for its neo-Gothic style with important modernist details, as it corresponded to the time, but with a more French-style look, possibly due to the years that Antoni Rocamora i Pujolà lived in France, while preparing to inherit his father’s manufacturing business and turn it into the most powerful soap industry in Spain.
The ornate stone façade contains profuse neo-Plateresque details and repeats the same structure of five rostrums topped by banned vaults that exceed the height of the roof itself and were decorated with a kind of ceramic scales of orange tones that shine and change hue according to sunlight. Although perhaps the most remarkable element of the set is the tower located at the bend of the corner with Casp, which breaks with the arrangement of the set, showing itself as a conical viewpoint of circular plant with pinnacle, which gives the building an air of medieval fortress.
Towards the end of the 19th century, the owner Antoni Rocamora came to expand his soap emporium not only throughout Spain, but also to the colonial Antilles; but instead of continuing with its industrial expansion, it opted for the purchase of lands in the Passeig de Gràcia; at that time agricultural parcel that served as a leisure area, warehouses and small orchards. The municipal policy of urbanization of these plots led him to see the possibility of building residential buildings where to install his large family and at the same time obtain income for the rent of the rest of the plants and the commercial low.
At present, the commercial part is occupied by important fashion stores as well as by various catering businesses.
