You’re almost there! As you walk down Ballesteries Street, look for a graceful row of colorful riverfront facades-Masó House is a bright spot among them, with elegant windows and a certain sturdy shyness, quietly announcing its importance. The house is at number 29-it’s not the tallest on the block, but if you spot a building with a bit more style, character, and that lovely Barcelona-inspired flair, you’ve found it. Now, step a bit closer and soak in the view.
Alright, picture yourself standing in front of a true time machine. This isn’t just any house in Girona-it’s the birthplace of Rafael Masó, one of the city’s most famous architects. If these walls could talk, they’d probably tell stories from a century ago, about dinners with twelve hungry siblings, countless family celebrations, and the sound of busy hands sketching designs by candlelight. Rafael didn’t just live here-he turned home improvements into high art!
Back in 1910, Rafael started his first bits of tinkering right here, designing all kinds of clever objects to impress his parents. Imagine gifting your mom an elegant lamp or sewing up a fancy tablecloth just in time for her birthday-except, you know, making it beautiful enough that art historians would drool over it a hundred years later. Talk about pressure!
And then, when Rafael’s dad asked him to redesign the whole house, Rafael didn’t just fix a squeaky step or a leaky pipe. He gave Masó House a new soul-using traditional Catalan touches, swooping wood staircases, colorful glass, and custom-made everything. Even the dining room-yep, the one you see in the photo-shows off his taste for comfort mixed with grandeur. Those thick wooden chairs just beg you to sit down for a family meal (although, perhaps not without an invitation from the Masós).
Don’t be misled by the quiet outside: inside these walls, the Masós collected art, hosted painters, and filled the house with laughter and sometimes a heated debate or two over Sunday paella. Now, the house belongs to the city and is managed by the Rafael Masó Foundation. Since 2012, everyone-yes, even us modern mortals-can step through and catch a glimpse of daily life from a century ago.
So, while you’re standing outside, let your imagination do a little time traveling. Who knows, maybe if you press your ear to the door, you might hear the faint clink of silverware on fine plates-or the creak of Rafael on the stairs, plotting his next masterpiece. Shall we head on to our next discovery?
