Casa de los Botines
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Casa de los Botines (built 1892-1893) is a modernist building set in León, Spain designed by Antonio Gaudí. Nowadays it is the main set of the Caja España bank.
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[edit] The beginning
While Gaudí was finishing the construction of the Palacio Episcopal de Astorga, his friend and patron, Eusebi Güell recommended him to build a house in the center of León. Simón Fernández and Mariano Andrés, the owners of a company that bought fabrics from Güell, commissioned Gaudí to build a residential building with a warehouse. The nickname of the house comes from the last name of the company's former owner, Joan Homs i Botinàs.
[edit] The building
With Casa de los Botines, the architect wanted to pay tribute to León's emblematic buildings. Therefore, he designed a building with a medieval air and numerous neo-Gothic characteristics. The building consists of four floors, a basement and an attic. Gaudí, chose an inclined roof and placed towers in the corners to reinforce the project's neo-Gothic feel. To ventilate and illuminate the basement, he created a moat around two of the façades, a strategy that he would repeat in the Sagrada Familia.
Gaudí placed the owners'dwellings on the first floor. These are accessed, respectively, by independent doors in the lateral and back façades. The upper floors house rental property and the lower floor contains the company offices. The principal door is crowned by a wrought iron inscription with the name of the company and by a great sculpture by San Jorge. During the restoration of the building in 1950, workers discovered a tube of lead under the sculpture containing the original plans signed by Gaudí and press clippings from the era.
The foundations of Casa de los Botines were a subject of debate during the building's construction. Gaudí had envisioned a continuous base, like that of the city's cathedral. However, local technicians insisted on constructing on pilotis to make the floor, located at a great depth, more resistant. Despite rumors that the building would collapse during construction, the house has never had structural problems. On the ground floor, the architect used -for the first time- a system of cast iron pillars that leave the space free, without the need for the load-bearing walls to distribute it. Unlike Gaudí's previous projects, the façades of Casa de los Botines have a estructural function.
On the inclined roof, six skylights supported by iron tie-beams illuminate and ventilate the attic. The emsemble is supported on a complex wooden framework.
[edit] In these days
In 1929, the savings bank of León, Caja España, bought the building and adapted it to its needs, without altering Gaudí's original project.
[edit] References
Antoni Gaudí, Complete Works (2002)
Coordinates: 42°35′53.82″N 5°34′14″W / 42.5982833°N 5.57056°W
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