Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Crowned Spire Turret with Floral Frieze of Casa de les Punxes by Josep Puig i Cadafalch

2076

Catalan Modernisme, Neo-Gothic nationalist phase, 1903–1905

A crowned hexagonal spire turret with carved floral frieze from Casa de les Punxes (Casa Terrades) in Barcelona, designed by Josep Puig i Cadafalch and constructed 1903–1905. The turret is hexagonal in plan, rising through a zone of continuously carved stone floral frieze in high relief — dense foliate panels between carved colonnette shafts on each face — before transitioning to the steeply pointed conical slate spire. The spire base carries carved nationalist inscriptions and heraldic emblems; the spire apex terminates in a wrought iron crown and finial. The combination of Gothic structural form — the pointed cone — with Modernisme ornamental surface detail — the dense botanical frieze — is characteristic of Puig i Cadafalch’s synthesis of medieval and contemporary formal languages. The carved floral panels produce strong relief shadows under raking sunlight.