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| this image as on Google Sreetview other images courtesy of Sophie Lepetit |
In Piera, a municipality of around 15,000 inhabitants, located in the interior of Catalonia, Spain, some 50 km west of Barcelona, one can come across the scene depicted above, a garden decorated with two towers rising high amidst some equally high trees.
These two towers are part of an art environment created by Pascual Zapater Barrús.
Life and works
Born in 1938 in a small village in the Spanish region of Aragon, Pascual became a shepherd after primary school. At the age of 21 he was called up for military service and after that he did not return to his native village, but went to live in Barcelona in the region of Catalonia.
There he first worked in construction and then started his own building company with one of his brothers, who was a plumber. This company did well, but unfortunately his brother died at a young age.
In 1975, at the age of 37, he married and the family would have three boys and a girl. Ten years later, around 1985, he bought a large house, or rather an estate, in Piera.
Pascual Zapater Barrús continued to work in Barcelona, but went to Piera on weekends to beautify his estate.
In his mid-fifties, in 1992, using all sorts of leftover materials available through his construction company, he began to build the first beautifully decorated tower, which would be 9.5 meters high.
This tower was called Naturaleza, a reference to nature.
Because he only worked on weekends, it would take him nine years to complete this project.
When Pascual Zapater turned 65, he retired. He sold his company and settled with his family permanently in Piera.
Now he could devote much more time to the further development of the art environment and in 2003 he began the construction of his second tower, 10 meter high and called Templo de los Inmortales (Temple of the Immortals).
The designation "immortals" refers to the highlights of Spanish intellectual and cultural life throughout the centuries,
Due to their imposing size, the two towers dominate this art environment.
But the site also includes many other creations, which are largely characterized by the decorations with mosaic, in Spain called trencadis. as in he entirely black and white tinted sculpture of the lady above, but also in the decorative plaques below, which decorated walls near the garden.
The art environment also includes smaller decorated creations, as seen in the image below.
The entrance to the house is also decorated with a row of similar small-scale creations.
There are also two miniature structures that are copies of buildings in Zapater's birthplace, but the most impressive are the decorative elements applied to the two defining towers, as can be seen once more in the image below.
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Pascual Zapater Barrús is now in his late eighties and he is no longer working on the expansion of the art environment. However, he is proud of what he has achieved and is happy to tell visitors more about it,
Documentation
* Artcle by Jo Farb Hernández on SPACES Archive
* Entry, with a variety of images on the weblog of Sophie Lepetit
* Article (March 2024) in Spnnish newaspaper La Vanguardia
* Article (September 2022) on weblog Estima da Terra
* Article (undated) by Serflac on website Atlas Obscura
Video
* Video (2018, YouTube, 9'20") by Arnau Salvado
note
I would like to note that biographical information is taken from the article by Jo Farb Hernández, the only source that has this information
Pascal Zapater Barrús
Garden with two decorated towers
36 Carrer Circumval·lacio ,
08784 Piera, Catalunya, 08784, Spain
towers can be seen from the street
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