Solà-Morales house

When in 1781 the Solà Morales family moved from Batet manor house to Firal, they gave the restoration and decoration of this new home to the Italian Francesco Barilli. This artist, popularly known as Britlli, succeeded in reconstructing a rural and popular Baroque house and adapting it, at the same time, to the urban constructions. A hundred and twenty-three years later (in 1913), a member of the same family, Joaquim Solà Morales, gave the reform project of the building to the architect Lluís Domènech Montaner, who was from Barcelona. He decided to integrate the original Rococo motifs dating from the 18th century into the Britlli façade, with the new Modernist shapes.This is why he kept some of the most significant elements and also introduced new ones. The rest of the house maintained the old structures, completed with a huge gallery. The new opening on the ground floor was divided by columns and two feminine sculptures (Greek caryatids) made by Eusebi Arnau, which are similar to the ones of Morera house, in Barcelona. At the back of the house, facing the garden, there is a gallery decorated with Rigalt and Granell stained glasses. Overall, it is a mixture of new and old elements. Forty years before the Modernist reform, on the 16th of April 1874, the Carlist General Savalls climbed to the balcony of this house and made his victory speech, which ended with the following words: “Break ranks and start to engender Carlists”.