The Cercle Artístic Sant Lluc (Artistic Circle of Sant Lluc) is an artistic practice centre founded in 1893, at the peak of Modernista splendour. For over 120 years, it has been a meeting point for artists and intellectuals to gather together for life drawing sessions, to discuss art and jointly organise exhibitions. Members such as the architects Antoni Gaudí and Josep Puig, the sculptors Josep Llimona, Miquel Blay and Eusebi Arnau, the painter Joan Llimona and masters of the decorative arts such as the furniture maker Gaspar Homar or the jeweller Lluís Masriera could be found daily at its former venue in Casa Martí, designed by Puig i Cadafalch and which today houses Els 4 Gats bar café. Sant Lluc is today housed in Palau Mercader, a small 17th-century palace, where you can enjoy and breathe in the same atmosphere as that of the pioneers of Modernisme, while admiring works by Joan Llimona or Alexandre de Riquer, leafing through Modernista magazines from around the world, such as Pèl&Ploma, Jugend or Le Japon artístiques, or chatting about aesthetics in its social room.
Get the Guidebook of Barcelona Modernisme Route
The Barcelona Modernisme Route is an itinerary that takes you through the Barcelona of Gaudí, Domènech i Montaner and Puig i Cadafalch, the architects who, together with others, made Barcelona the world capital of Modernisme. This Route enables you to get to know thoroughly impressive palatial residences, amazing houses, the temple that has become a symbol of the city and a huge hospital, but it also includes humbler and more everyday buildings and items such as chemists’, shops, lampposts and benches - modernist works which show that Art Nouveau put down strong roots in Barcelona and today Modernisme is still an art that is alive and part of life in the city.
The Guidebook of Barcelona Modernisme Route can be acquired in our centers of Modernisme.
