Institut Pere Mata, Reus
A psychiatric hospital built as a garden city of pavilions, and the prototype for Domènech’s Sant Pau.
At a glance
The Institut Pere Mata is the psychiatric hospital of Reus, designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner (1850–1923) and built from 1897. Rather than one great block, he planned a small garden city of separate pavilions, each set among trees and linked by avenues, following the most advanced ideas of hospital design of the day. The richest of them, the Pavelló dels Distingits, is a jewel of Catalan Modernisme and is listed as a cultural asset of national interest.
Key facts
- Location: Carretera de l’Institut Pere Mata, Reus
- Architect: Lluís Domènech i Montaner
- Built: from 1897 (project), completed by 1912
- Style: Catalan Modernisme
- Note: the prototype for his Hospital de Sant Pau in Barcelona
History
A company formed in Reus in 1896 to build a modern asylum, and it turned to Domènech i Montaner. His plan answered the hygienist thinking of the time: instead of confining patients in a single institution, he spread them across eighteen pavilions in a landscaped park, separated by sex, condition and social class.
Here Domènech worked out the pavilion-in-a-garden system that he would soon develop, on a far larger scale, at the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in Barcelona. The Institut Pere Mata still works as a psychiatric hospital today; the Pavelló dels Distingits, restored, is open to visitors.
What you see
The Pavelló dels Distingits, built for paying patients, is the building to see. Its façade is warm brick banded with stone, crowned with Modernista detail, and inside it keeps ceramic dados, mosaic floors and a music room glowing with colour. The decorative language, brick, tile, mosaic and stained glass, is exactly the one Domènech would use at Sant Pau.
The wider campus reads as a calm garden suburb of low pavilions among trees, a deliberate contrast to the grim asylums of the nineteenth century. It is one of the earliest places where Modernista art was put to work in the service of medicine.
Practical information
- Open: the Pavelló dels Distingits is open for visits; the rest is a working hospital
- Cost: admission to the visitable pavilion
- Best for: the Pavelló dels Distingits and its music room
- Time needed: 45–60 minutes
Getting there
The institute is on the northern edge of Reus, a short taxi or bus ride from the centre and the train station; Reus lies about 15 km from Tarragona.
Nearby
- Casa Navàs — Domènech’s town palace on the Plaça del Mercadal
- Gaudí Centre Reus — the museum devoted to Antoni Gaudí, born in Reus
Sources
- Ajuntament de Reus (reus.cat) — Institut Pere Mata
- Arquitectura Catalana (arquitecturacatalana.cat) — Institut Pere Mata
- Wikimedia Commons — image source and licence
Find it on the map
See this place and what’s around it →📷 Diventa un fotografo di Cultural Heritage Online
Condividi le tue foto dei luoghi: restano pubblicate con la tua firma come autore. Più vengono viste, più ti fai conoscere — e presto un concorso premierà le foto più apprezzate.
Accedi o registrati gratis per aggiungere una foto