El Capricho

The commission is set within the context of the Sobrellano Palace, a work by Joan Martorell, the architect with whom Gaudí collaborated. This relationship helped him receive the project for a villa located just a few metres from the palace, on a narrow, sloping plot, a circumstance that shaped the form and organisation of the building.

The building has an irregular floor plan and is organised over three levels, basement, main floor and attic. On the exterior, the stone base contrasts with the yellow and red bricks of the walls, combined with bands of glazed ceramic. Gaudí uses only two ceramic relief motifs, the sunflower and its leaf, repeated and combined to create a unified decorative programme of great symbolic power, linked to light, growth and the cycle of life. This ornamental concept also appears in Casa Vicens.

One of the most distinctive elements of «El Capricho» is its cylindrical minaret-like tower, which dominates the building’s silhouette and accentuates its Orientalising character. This tower reflects Gaudí’s early interest in Islamic and Mediterranean architecture, freely integrated into his personal language.

The intense colour and fanciful forms of the ensemble gave rise to the name by which the building is popularly known: «El Capricho».

Máximo Díaz de Quijano died in 1885, the same year the works were completed. He did live in the residence, although only for a very brief period. The building was designed as a fully habitable residence, linked to his needs and way of life. In this sense, the work can be read in relation to Máximo’s personal interests, as a pianist, writer and lover of botany, which are symbolically reflected in the architecture and in its dialogue with music and nature.

«El Capricho» is the first burst of Gaudí’s genius, where fantasy becomes architecture and nature becomes a constructive language.

The building was declared a Historic-Artistic Monument of national interest in 1969.