UAB Casa Convalescència

The glazed solariums stretching along this facade once caught sunlight for Barcelona's most pampered patients... exactly one hundred of them at a time. You're standing before Casa Convalescència, where in 1930, King Alfonso XIII himself cut the ribbon, not knowing he was opening what would become one of the final masterpieces of Catalan Modernism. This extraordinary building tells a tale of architectural tragedy and triumph. Lluís Domènech i Montaner, the visionary behind this design, died in 1923 before seeing his creation completed. His son Pere took over, ensuring every detail matched his father's dreams... those natural stone columns you see, the ceramic murals that chronicle the building's own story, and those revolutionary glazed solariums that brought healing light to the sick. But here's what makes this place truly unique - it was built with blood money, so to speak. The entire project was funded by selling Barcelona's old convalescence home on carrer del Carme for precisely 1,750,000 pesetas. Inside, a chapel splits the building perfectly down the middle... men recovered on one side, women on the other, each wing completely separate in the conservative 1930s. Walk through those doors and you'll discover something remarkable - this isn't just any university building. Since 1969, the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona has transformed these former sickrooms into lecture halls, but the healing spirit remains. Those same solariums now nurture minds instead of bodies, and the UNESCO World Heritage walls still whisper stories of recovery, royalty, and architectural genius.