Carnival Costumes: Sisters on Fire

With this post I start my Barcelona Carnival series. Most of my coming pictures are costumes, specially regional costumes. But as you can see kids make better images due to their spontaneity and that ability to find magic where our untrained eye hardly sees happiness and beauty.

Carnival Time in Barcelona!

Hereby I want to make clear that this blog is not dead. No way! With this enthusiastic cry of joy I want to declare carnival season open in Barcelona Photoblog. I know many of you wanted to know about this important event in Barcelona so I have a whole set of carnival images coming your way. Please forgive my irregular posting, I think sometimes we need a little break to gasp for some fresh air. By the way this February my photo blog will be two years old. I don't believe in celebrations but I am happy to be around and be able to share some time with you.

Casa Rocamora: Renaissance-Gothic-Inspired Art Nouveau

Casa Rocamora on the corner of carrer Casp and Passeig de Gracia very near Plaça Catalunya. 

Manuel Rocamora belonged to a Catalan bourgeois family that was prosperous making tallow candles and soaps. He was a collector of art thanks to his mother. The family industry of spark plugs and soaps was called Rocamora y Cia, and owes its growth to trade with the Spanish colonies of Cuba and Puerto Rico. It was founded as such by Marcos Rocamora in 1845. 

At the end of the 19th century Barcelona appears as the great Spanish soap-making center, and all due to the Rocamora family. Its growth is closely linked to trade with the colonies, for this reason the loss of colonial trade meant the bankruptcy of the factory. The factory will close its doors in 1956.

Casa Rocamora, one of the most beautiful representatives of Catalan Art Nouveau with a touch of Renaissance Gothic influence was built by Bonaventura and Joaquim Bassegoda in 1914. 

It is not the first time I include this house in Barcelona Photoblog but since the last picture was taken with an old camera which didn't favor the building too much I thought, why not giving it a second chance? Please check my original post: Catalan Modernisme: Casa Rocamora