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The true history of the current building C
It was in that year when the family business of Hijos de Ignacio Damians, dedicated to the production of metal parts and which had a workshop on Obradors Street and offices on Escudellers Street, decided to build a store to sell the products directly. manufactured.
Ignacio Damians, patriarch of a family that had amassed a fortune working hard in his craft as a forger, wanted to leave a record for future generations that words are carried by the wind and that only works and deeds last forever.
That is why he ordered the construction of a building that would perpetuate the history of his family in the centuries to come. Proof of this is the current building of Company C.
His initiative was later followed by other businessmen who built the Casa Jorba and Almacenes el Águila warehouses.
The Damians family opened the new sales premises on an empty lot on 51 Pelayo Street. In 1913 they contacted the master builder Agustí Mas, but not happy with the design of the project, they spoke with the architect Eduard Ferrés, who He presented an alternative that fully convinced them.
For its realization, Farrés offered the help of his collaborators Ignasi Mas and Lluís Homs, who would carry out joint work to develop it, as it appeared in the project.
Ferrés began construction of the building in 1913. The warehouses would be built in art deco style. The building would have two facades facing the street, the main one on Pelayo Street and the other on Tallers Street, which served as an entrance for customers and the goods that arrived at the company.
It was one of the first buildings of the time built with reinforced concrete. It had seven floors, two underground and five floors visible from the street.
The façade on Pelayo Street was made with convex windows, which gave great light to the interior of the premises. The façade on Tallers Street had a simple geometric line.
On the fifth floor, Eduard Ferrés had two sculptures built by Lambert Escaler, which were placed like caryatids, representing Work and Study.
One was the figure of a half-naked man, holding a mallet in his right hand; The second was the figure of a woman dressed in a tunic, holding a scroll with her right hand, while she held her chin in a thoughtful attitude with her left hand.
The building was topped on Pelayo Street by an expressionist-inspired dome made of a spherical skylight. The work was completed in 1915.
Can Damians won first prize that year in the annual competition for artistic buildings organized by Barcelona City Council, in the commercial establishments section.
On the occasion of the terrifying fire on Sunday, December 25, 1932, which left the large Almacenes El Siglo on Rambla de los Estudios destroyed, its owners decided to acquire the Almacenes Damians to reopen the premises as the new Almacenes El Siglo.
Almacenes El Siglo reopened its doors on Pelayo Street in 1934, but a few years later they were again victims of another fire, as a result of a short circuit that occurred in the false ceiling of the first floor.
