Four busts are silhouetted against the sky above the building at number 7 Gran de Gràcia. They are located on what is known as Casa Servent and for some they are nothing more than a sample of the cultural tastes of their time, but for others their selection hides an encrypted message that could have to do with the origins of the author of Don Quixote.
Casa Servent is a modernist building commissioned by the contractor Ramon Servent to the architect Emilio Sala and built between 1910 and 1911 in front of what is now the emblematic Casa Fuster hotel. The characters chosen for the busts that crown the building are the former councilor in cap in the 15th century, Joan Fivaller; the navigator Christopher Columbus; the theologian Miguel Servetus, and the father of Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes.
The surname of each of them appears at the foot of the busts, although Fivaller appears as Civaller. This was a patrician from the Barcelona of his time, belonging to the lineage of a powerful family for several centuries. Legend has it that, being a member of the Consell de Cent, he led a delegation to demand payment of tribute from King Ferdinand of Antequera for the meat acquired in Barcelona. It was an act that was clothed with a certain heroism because it could have cost Fivaller to be retaliated against, although investigators currently question this. The statue is one of those that presides over the façade of the town hall as a symbol of the defense of the city’s municipal liberties.
Researchers linked to the Institut de Nova Història maintain that the busts actually contain an encrypted message that would have to do with Cervantes’ Barcelona origins, associating him with characters who also suffered persecution and whose origins are really unknown. There are theories about the Barcelona origin of Columbus and that Servent would actually be the supposed Catalan surname of Cervantes, who is also speculated to have been the son of Servetus, who ended up dying at the stake in Geneva at the hands of the Inquisition for, among others. charges, deny the Trinity.
In any case, beyond conspiracy theories, Casa Servent is a property worth admiring for its architectural value.
