Abstract
The capital of Catalonia, Barcelona, is one of the most famous centres of Art Nouveau architecture in the history of art. The name of the city is usually associated with the names of the most famous architects of this style – Antoni Gaudí i Cornet, Josep Puig i Cadafalch and Lluis Domènech i Montaner, but a whole galaxy of talented architects worked there, who made a significant contribution to the development of regional architecture. There are several thousand Art Nouveau buildings in Barcelona; however, Art Nouveau dominates the cityscape of this huge city only in certain places. Barcelona’s Art Nouveau reflects the ubiquitous formal language of the style, but it is mostly interpreted in the context of local cultural traditions, acquiring a distinct regional flavour. The articulation of the facades of many Art Nouveau buildings in Barcelona, especially the glazed bay windows, which usually rise almost the entire height of the facade, gives this style a uniqueness found only in Barcelona, which simultaneously reflects both the artistic creativity, construction and structural innovations of its time, and the embodiment of national identity. Art Nouveau, or modernism, is a testament to the pride and creative abilities of the Catalan people. The aim of the article is to reveal the specific features of the work of Barcelona’s architectural masters within the context of the pan-European Art Nouveau language, capturing also the general diversity of formal expressions of the style in the regional context.