Casa de les Punxes (Casa de los Pinchos) is a modernist style castle-like building in the heart of Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain). Designed by the architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch, one of the major representatives of the Catalan Modernism, it is situated in the iconic Eixample district, in the Avinguda Diagonal and its intersection with Carrer Rosseló and Carrer Bruc. The towers with pinnacles, which distinguish the building from the surrounding urban landscape, gave Casa de les Punxes its name. The other name by which it is known is Casa Terradas. The Terradas family were those who commissioned the construction and then owned the house.

In the design of the building that looks like a medieval castle, there is a clear allusion to the architectonic style of Northern Europe. The architect, being a big admirer of Richard Wagner, traces parallelisms with the Neuschwanstein castle in the Bavarian Alps, the example par excellence of what a romantic medieval castle should be.

Richard Wagner’s music by many is considered to be the apogee of Romanticism. Overwhelming to the listener with their innovative and original style, many of Wagner’s operas — such as Tristan und Isolde, Der Ring des Nibelungen, Tannhäuser, Lohengrin — are based on myths and medieval legends. Moreover, no composer in the XIXth century Europe and afterward had such an influence over other forms of art as Wagner, thus, fulfilling his ideas on Gesamtkunstwerk — ‘synthesis of the arts’. The idea of the total work of art was very popular among Art Nouveau architects, and in Catalan Modernism in particular.

Many decorative elements of the Casa de les Punxes refer to the owners of the building — the Terradas family — by means of anagrams and allegories. Besides, one of the ceramic panels represents Saint George (Sant Jordi), the saint patron of Catalonia, slaying the dragon: the famous subject in the Catalonian architecture and culture. Just under the mural, there is a sculpted portrait of the architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch himself.

The facades of the Casa de les Punxes are full of symbolism, so characteristic to the artistic movements of the early XXth century. As a true work of art, each of these elements can convey several, either mythological or religious, interpretations. Let it be an intellectual task for the viewer.