Since the mid-19th century, Barcelona’s Sant Gervasi neighbourhood has been a wealthy part of the city. The grand opening of the Barcelona-Sarrià railway line in 1863 encouraged some of the city’s bourgeois families to build summer residences surrounded by gardens.

Later, well into the 20th century, the younger generations of these families, many of whose members were white collar professionals (doctors, engineers, architects…), settled in the neighbourhood permanently. These younger people included many members of the Group of Catalan Architects and Technicians for the Progress of Contemporary Architecture (GATCPAC), the main supporters of modern architecture in Catalonia, such as Josep Lluís Sert and Germà Rodríguez Arias.

Many of the modern residential projects built during the 1930s, such as Casa López, on Carrer de Muntaner, and Casa Rodríguez Arias, on Via Augusta, are located precisely in this neighbourhood.
Barcelona in the time of the GATCPAC. This avant-garde architecture tour of Sant Gervasi allows you to discover the evolution of architecture throughout the 20th century and situate it in relation to the most important events that took place in Barcelona’s political, social, cultural and artistic spheres.