Casa-Museo Modernista de Novelda
A wine merchant’s townhouse kept as it was, ironwork, stair and painted patio intact, now a museum of Modernista taste.
At a glance
The Casa-Museo Modernista stands on the Calle Mayor of Novelda, an inland town of the Alicante province that grew wealthy on saffron and the wine and marble trades. The house was built between 1900 and 1903 to a design by the architect Pedro Cerdán, for Antonia Navarro Mira; locally it is still known as the casa Navarro, or the casa de la Pichocha. It is a clear case of Spanish Modernismo in the European manner of the moment, and because it survived almost unchanged it now works as a museum of the style, furniture, objects and rooms together.
Key facts
- Location: Calle Mayor 24, Novelda, Alicante
- Architect: Pedro Cerdán
- Built: 1900–1903
- Style: Spanish Modernismo
- Today: a house-museum (since 1977), run by the Fundación Mediterráneo
History
Antonia Navarro Mira had the house built as a private residence at the turn of the century, when Novelda’s trade in saffron, wine and local marble was at its height. The architect Pedro Cerdán gave her a townhouse fully in the new Modernista language, from the ironwork of the street front to the painted patio within.
The family lived there until 1936. In the last days of the Civil War the building served as quarters for the Italian command, and in the post-war years it housed a school. In 1975 it was bought by the Caja de Ahorros of Novelda, and in 1977 the Caja de Ahorros del Mediterráneo restored it and turned it into a museum.
That sequence, residence, barracks, school, museum, is the reason so much survives. Rather than being modernised, the house was conserved, and it passed into public care with its decoration intact. Today it is run by the Fundación Mediterráneo as one of the best-preserved Modernista interiors of the Valencian Community.
What you see
The street façade is restrained but unmistakably Modernista: wrought-iron balconies and window grilles bend into floral and whiplash curves over a stone front. The drama is saved for inside. A singular Modernista staircase winds up through the house, and a central patio, ringed by slender columns, brings light down into the rooms.
Throughout, the iron, the woodwork and the painted surfaces were conceived as one decorative whole, and the museum’s collection of period furniture and objects sits inside the rooms they were made for. The effect is of stepping into a comfortable bourgeois house of around 1903 and finding nothing out of place.
Practical information
- Open: as a museum (Casa-Museo Modernista); check current hours
- Cost: low admission or free; confirm locally
- Best for: the Modernista staircase and the columned patio
- Time needed: 45 minutes
Getting there
Novelda lies about 30 km inland from Alicante; the Casa-Museo is on the Calle Mayor in the town centre, a short walk from the railway station.
Nearby
- Santuario de Santa María Magdalena — the Gaudí-inspired sanctuary above Novelda
- Castillo de la Mola — the medieval castle on the hill beside the sanctuary
Sources
- Ayuntamiento de Novelda (novelda.es) — Casa Museo Modernista
- Fundación Mediterráneo (fundacionmediterraneo.es) — Casa Museo Modernista
- Wikimedia Commons — image source and licence
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