Josep Puig I Cadafalch

Place: Mataró

Born: 1867

Death: 1956

Biography:

Josep Puig i Cadafalch was a Spanish Modernista architect who designed many significant buildings in Barcelona, and a politician who had a significant role in the development of Catalan institutions. He was born in Mataró, Spain on October 17, 1867 and died in Barcelona, Spain on December 21, 1956. He was the architect of the Casa Martí (also known as 'Els Quatre Gats'), which became a place of ideas, projects and social gatherings for such well-known Catalans as Santiago Rusiñol and Ramon Casas. He was also actively involved in politics, serving as a Barcelona City Councillor from 1901 to 1903, in the Spanish Parliament from 1907 to 1910, and as the second president of the Commonwealth of Catalonia from 1917 to 1924. From 1942 to his death in 1956, he was the president of the academic institution of the Catalan language, the Institut d'Estudis Catalans. He was also a great defender of Catalan culture and history, publishing studies of language, legal order and political organisation in the 11th-12th centuries. He is known for his documentation and photographing of the culturally important buildings and art works the Vall d'Aran and Alta Ribagorça during an expedition sponsored by the Institute for Catalan Studies in 1907.