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HISTORY: El Arte Cristiano, a 19 th century Neo-Gothic building |
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Olot's first religious imagery workshop, El Arte Cristiano, was first located on La Llibertat street on a ground floor space that Joan Casabó rented out to Josep Berga.
One year later, in 1890, as the company became consolidated, building got underway on the permanent headquarters of the company on a plot of land located near the ancestral home of the Vayreda family. This is still the site of the Saints Museum of Olot. In accordance with the design rendered by architect Joaquim Codina, the building and the workshop area were built with their entrances on Joaquim Vayreda street. Over the years, successive extensions would be added on to this original building.
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The initial building, with a style that hinted at Neo-Gothic, consisted of a ground floor, a basement and two upper floors used as a home.
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The basement was organised according to the saints manufacturing process. On one side was the sculpture workshop, woodworking shop and the packaging warehouse.
Separated by the courtyard and the carriage entrance was the mould storage area, the forge, the moulding room, the finishing room, the materials storage area and a small laboratory where cardboard wood was made.
This same floor also housed the painting rooms, the storage area for unpainted figures and the packaging room, as well as the office, an exhibition hall and the concierge's quarters.
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The upper floor of this building housed the private residence of Marian Vayreda and his family. At the time, it was the most luxurious part of the building, featuring lovely leaded glass windows, mouldings and elaborate woodworking. It even had its own private oratory that was dedicated to the Holy Family.
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What stands out the most in the decoration of the main façade is the moulding or edging that wraps around the eaves and the window openings, which features ogee arches and thistle leaves, as well as the set of images – taken down during the Civil War – on the pillars in the courtyard and the entrance portal.
In the middle and upper part of the façade you can see the relief showing the company's trademark, with the half-body of an angel holding a coat-of-arms and the name of the workshop. It was modelled by Celestí Devesa shortly after the opening of the building. At first-floor level over a rectangular sign which is no longer there, passers-by used to be able to read Vayreda y Cía.
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