Francesc Brosa i Casanobas

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Francesc Brosa i Casanobas Portrait: Pau Audouard Déglaire
Signature of Francesc Brosa
Francesc Brosa in a historical photograph by the photographer A. Sala (23 July 1865) showing Elies Rogent, architect of the University of Humanities in Barcelona, ​​surrounded by his colleagues: Francesc Brosa is the first on the right.

Francesc Brosa i Casanobas or Francisco Brosa y Casanobas (* 1834 in Barcelona ; † March 22, 1899 ibid) was a Catalan builder , builder and landowner.

Son of Francesc Brosa i Mauri (1799–1864) and Teresa Casanobas i Moragas (1806–1859). The Brosa family came from Castellterçol , 50 km north of Barcelona; the Casanobas lived in Barcelona as early as the 18th century, on the square of Santa María del Mar , the Cathedral of the Sea.

A close relationship soon developed between Francesc Brosa and Elies Rogent i Amat , the great Catalan architect of the 19th century. The fathers of both ran similar businesses in Barcelona; while Francesc Brosa's father was a timber merchant, Elies Rogent's had a warehouse for building materials. Elies Rogent studied architecture in Madrid ; Francesc Brosa received the title of master builder in Barcelona on February 18, 1854. Months later; on January 16, 1855 he became an assistant in the college for builders, where Elies Rogent had already become a professor.

On March 23, 1861, Francesc Brosa married the youngest sister of Elies, Josepa Rogent i Amat, from whom he had a daughter, Josepa (1862–1873). Both mother and daughter soon died. On July 21, 1875 he married again, this time to Catarina Marroig i Marroig from Mallorca . There were five children from this marriage: Antonia, Teresa, Francesc, Pepita and Mercedes.

The construction activity is quite intense; they are mostly public buildings and private houses in several areas of Barcelona. In 1863 Elies Rogent drew a house for him that was to be built on a piece of land that had been left free by the city wall that had just been demolished. The plots were arranged by the city planner Ildefons Cerdà and the city as its owner sold by auction. In this way, Francesc Brosa was able to build one of the first houses in the new Eixample of Barcelona for himself.

Francesc also devotes himself to the construction of the University of Barcelona (current “Edificio Histórico” of the university), one of the great works of Elias Rogent. Together with him he also carries out the reconstruction of the Ripoll monastery. In 1886 he built the burial chapel for his own family in the new south-west cemetery, which had been inaugurated three years earlier.

His activity as a landowner grew over the years. He was able to acquire land in the Eixample of Barcelona, ​​near the Diagonal. For relaxation and for the summer days he bought a country house from the 17th century near Tiana, high on the slope of the mountain next to a pilgrimage church (La Mare de Déu de l'Alegria) - with a view of the Mediterranean Sea and to the south, far away , also on Barcelona. “Can Brosa” became a popular meeting place for the Marroig, Albanell, Segalá, Mas and Palau families.

Elies Rogent i Amat died on February 21, 1897. During the funeral procession through Barcelona, ​​from the Bethlehem Church to the cemetery, all of the city's social and political forces were represented. Francesc Brosa, along with the academic authorities, held one of the ribbons from the coffin by the hand, presumably as a representative of the family. Even if the marriage to Josepa Rogent was far in the past, the relationships between the two families had remained strong. On March 22, 1899, two years later, Francesc Brosa i Casanobas also died at the age of 65 in his house on Pelai Street. His wife Catarina Marroig died in 1932.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The real name, as he himself writes it, is Francesc Brosa i Casanobas (Spanish: Francisco Brosa y Casanobas). In some publications and encyclopedias you can find the first family name erroneously written as “Brossa” with two s, or the second family name as “Casanovas” with v instead of b, which is also wrong. The book Los maestros de obras de Barcelona by Juan Bassegoda Nonell, although the result of many years of excellent research, contains almost all of the wrong variations of the name; there he is even mistaken for another master builder (Jaime Brossa Mascaró) and is called Francisco Brossa Mascaró (?!).
  2. ^ In Batlle's Catalan year book (Joan Bautista Batlle, Calendari catalá, 1900, p. 23) he is called an avid Catalanist ("fervent catalanista").
  3. ↑ In the two marriage certificates, the profession is “master builder”, but the death certificate says “landowner”, which represents a real change in his activity.
  4. ↑ Contrary to what JF Rafols claims in his artist lexicon (JF Rafols, Diccionari biogràfic d'artistes de Catalunya, Barcelona 1951, Volume I, page 164), Francesc Brosa did not marry Elies Rogent's daughter, but his Sister Josepa Rogent i Amat. Rafols' claim would not have been possible because of age: Elies Rogent married in 1858, Francesc Brosa in 1861.
  5. ↑ Antonia married Juan Albanell; Teresa remained celibate and led an almost mystical life; Francesc married Maria Dolores Palau y Durán; Pepita became the wife of Luis Segalà y Estalella, university professor of ancient philology, linguist and translator of classical works; Mercedes, the youngest, married the architect Ignasi Mas Morell.
  6. ↑ Juan Bassegoda Nonell, Los Maestros de Obras de Barcelona, Barcelona 1973, Editores Técnicos Asociados, SA, pages 9, 23, 48 and 76th
  7. ^ La Vanguardia , February 23, 1897, p. 3.

literature

  • Braun - Buckett: Saur General Artist Lexicon . Volume 14, KG Saur Verlag, Munich - Leipzig 1996, ISBN 3-598-22754-X , pages 384 and 388.
  • Bassegoda Nonell, Juan: Los Maestros de Obras de Barcelona. Editores Técnicos Asociados, SA, Barcelona 1973, pages 9, 23, 48 and 76.
  • Rafols, JF: Diccionari biogràfic d'artistes de Catalunya. Millá, Barcelona 1951, Volume I, page 164.
  • VV. AA .: Elies Rogent i la Universitat de Barcelona 1988. Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona. ISBN 84-393-1049-8 .
  • Bautista Batlle, Joan: Calendari catalá, per a l'any 1900.
  • Romero Marín, Juanjo: La construcción de la cultura del oficio durante la industrialización - Barcelona 1814-1860. Història del treball, TIG, Universidad de Barcelona 2005, Editorial Icaria.
  • Vallès Altés, Joan: Ramon Rogent i el seu entorn: pinzellades d'una vida. L'Abadia de Montserrat 2000.

Unpublished sources in

personal data
SURNAME Brosa i Casanobas, Francesc
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Brosa y Casanobas, Francisco
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Catalan builder
DATE OF BIRTH 1834
PLACE OF BIRTH Barcelona
DATE OF DEATH March 22, 1899
Place of death Barcelona