On May 12th, 1897 Pere Comas, a mason from Mataró by profession, requested permission from the City Council of Mataró to renovate the houses at numbers 55 and 57 on Argentona Street, which he had bought a year earlier.
As shown in the project plans included in the building permit application, the intervention consisted of demolishing the two houses and constructing a new building.
Interestingly, these plans are signed by the architect Antoni Gallissà (Barcelona, 1861-1903), although the author is also the architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch.
One reason for this could be that Puig i Cadafalch was the municipal architect of Mataró until a year earlier, between 1892 and 1896.
The book L’oeuvre de Puig y Cadafalch (1904), dedicated to the architect’s work, confirms that he is the author of Casa Coll i Regàs.
This new building has 4 floors: basement, ground floor, first floor, and attic. The project plans include elements such as the facade, a section scheme with heights and proportions, the ground floor, and the first floor.
Neither the basement nor the attic appear in the plans.
The style follows the tradition of the manor houses of the Mataró bourgeoisie and is the only manor house of the modernist era built in the city.
JOAQUIM COLL I REGÀS
He was born in Mataró in 1855.
His father and paternal grandfather were tailors, and his maternal grandfather, Feliciano Regàs, had a factory where Joaquim Coll i Regàs began to work.
This factory was the continuation of the one founded by the engineer Antoni Regàs i Borrell (Mataró, 1752-1837), inventor of a spinning machine, at the beginning of the 19th century.
It was located at 9 d’en Moles Street and later moved to Cuba Square, corner with Unió Street.
Later, it moved to new buildings on Mercè Street, currently called Camí Ral, at the site of Recoder Avenue.
The company also had buildings on Churruca Street.
The commercial name of the Coll i Regàs factory was ‘Sobrino de Antonio Regàs’.
In 1880, Joaquim Coll i Regàs married Magdalena Surià i Prats in the church of Sant Josep.
Between 1882 and 1889, their 6 children were born, and they bought two houses on Argentona Street to build the family house, designed by Josep Puig i Cadafalch and completed in 1898.
However, the family was not very happy in the house.
Magdalena Surià i Prats died, and Joaquim Coll i Regàs remarried Dolors Jaumandreu i Frigola.
In 1903, a mental illness incapacitated him, and he died in Barcelona in 1904.
JOSEP PUIG I CADAFALCH
He began working as an architect in Barcelona and Mataró, where he was the municipal architect between 1892 and 1896.
In the city, he was responsible for urbanizing many streets and for modifying, modernizing, and expanding the sewer network, many of which are still in perfect condition.
Together with Dr. Lluís Viladevall, he wrote the work “Memoria sobre el estado sanitario de la ciudad de Mataró” (“Report on the sanitary condition of the city of Mataró”), where he demonstrated that the lack of sewers or their poor condition caused many health problems.
Among Puig i Cadafalch’s works in the city, the renovation of the Session Hall of the City Hall and its coffered ceiling, a wooden decorated ceiling structure, stand out.
Other works include the Rengle Market building in the Gran Plaza, designed by the previous municipal architect, Emili Cabanyes, for which he designed a new roof.
He is also the author of the Beneficència building on Sant Josep Street and several private works such as the Sisternes House (1891) on Sant Simó Street, corner with Espenyes, the Can Palomer or La Confianza store (1894) in the Xica Plaza, and the Parera House (1894) on Nou Street.
Once he ceased to be the municipal architect, he designed the Coll i Regàs House (1898).
In Argentona, he designed his own house (1897-1905), Can Garí del Cros (1897), and the Sacrament Chapel of the parish church of Sant Julià.
During the time he worked in Mataró, he participated in all the city’s cultural and artistic initiatives:
the founding of the public municipal library and the Artistic Archaeological Association, for which he designed the banner that the association offered to the Ripoll monastery during its restoration.
Finally, he installed the first Mataró Museum on the ground floor of the now-disappeared School of Arts and Crafts building.
In Barcelona, his first work was the Macià Jewelry store (1892) on Ferran Street, which no longer exists.
He also built many emblematic houses in the Eixample district:
- The Amatller House (1900) on Passeig de Gràcia.
- The Macaya House (1904) on Passeig de Sant Joan, now the cultural center of La Caixa.
- The Trinxet House (1904) on Còrsega Street, which no longer exists.
- The Casa de les Punxes (1905) on Diagonal Avenue.
- The Serra House (1907) on Rambla de Catalunya, now the headquarters of the Barcelona Provincial Council.
- The Quatre Gats House (1897) on Montsió Street.
- The Casarramona factory (1913) in Montjuïc, now the cultural center of La Caixa.
In Montserrat, he is the author of the Cross of the Fifth Sorrowful Mystery of the Monumental Rosary, with the collaboration of the sculptor Josep Llimona.
Josep Puig i Cadafalch died in Barcelona at the age of 89, on December 22, 1956. He requested to be buried in Mataró, in the family niche at the Capuchins Cemetery, on Christmas morning.
