A textile merchant’s office in the wool city, its gallery of arches set on columns blooming with carved stone roses.
At a glance
The Despatx Lluch stands on the Carrer de la Indústria in central Sabadell, the great wool-manufacturing city of the Vallès. It was built in 1908 by Juli Batllevell i Arús (1864–1928), Sabadell’s municipal architect for fifteen years and a former assistant of Antoni Gaudí. The client, Joaquim Taulé, wanted an office for the trade in cloth, and Batllevell gave him one of the most distinctive small Modernista buildings in the city. It takes its name from Fèlix Lluch, the businessman who bought it in 1936.
Key facts
- Location: Carrer de la Indústria 8–10, Sabadell
- Architect: Juli Batllevell i Arús
- Built: 1908
- Style: Catalan Modernisme
- Today: the town hall’s Citizen Attention Service (since 2004)
History
Sabadell rose on wool, and its merchants and manufacturers built in the Modernista style to show their standing. Juli Batllevell, who had trained in Gaudí’s circle before becoming the city architect, was the man they turned to, and over fifteen years he marked Sabadell with houses, factories and public works.
In 1908 the cloth trader Joaquim Taulé commissioned him to build a despatx, a business office, on the Carrer de la Indústria. Batllevell designed a compact but richly worked building whose ornament carries the unmistakable trace of his master. In 1936 the property was bought by the businessman Fèlix Lluch, and it has been known ever since as the Despatx Lluch.
The building later passed to the city, and in September 2004 it reopened as the seat of the Servei d’Atenció Ciutadana, the town hall’s public-attention service, giving the old textile office a new civic life.
What you see
The front is dominated by a gallery of arches carried on slender columns, and it is the columns that catch the eye: each is carved with large stone roses, a flourish of Gaudian craft on a city-centre office. At street level the windows sit on concave sills decorated with ceramic mosaic, so colour glints along the base of the building.
Everything is at the scale of a small commercial front, yet nothing is plain. Batllevell packed the surface with the floral, organic detail of Modernisme, proof that in Sabadell even a merchant’s office could be a work of art.
Practical information
- Open: during town-hall service hours (Citizen Attention Service)
- Cost: free; the façade is always viewable
- Best for: the rose-carved columns of the arcaded gallery
- Time needed: 10–15 minutes
Getting there
The Despatx Lluch is on the Carrer de la Indústria in the centre of Sabadell, about 20 km north of Barcelona and reached by FGC and Renfe rail.
Nearby
- Hotel Suís — Batllevell’s Modernista hotel on the same street
- Caixa Sabadell and the Modernista shops of the city centre
Sources
- Ajuntament de Sabadell (sabadell.cat) — Despatx Lluch
- Arquitectura Catalana (arquitecturacatalana.cat) — Despatx Lluch
- Wikimedia Commons — image source and licence
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