Sober modernisme

The Casa de la Lactància was initially designed by the architect Pere Falqués in 1907 and but completed by Antoni de Falguera in 1913. It is a pretty Modernista house with a blue ceramic-tiled facade and neo-Gothic windows, simple in form but clearly Modernista in style. Its large, Modernista, stained-glass windows, ceiling skylight, wrought-iron railings and ceramic mosaic bannisters inside have all been preserved in perfect condition. And the sculptural relief on the facade, an allegory of infancy, alludes to the building’s origins.

From infancy to old age

The Casa de la Lactància was built as a social patronage project, to feed and look after abandoned children. It was a place where wet nurses breast-fed the children of other women in return for money. It also functioned as a maternity hospital until 1980 and was known as La Maternitat.