Els Pallaresos is a Spanish municipality in the Catalan county of Tarragonès. It is located on a hill 121 metres above sea level on the left bank of the Francolí River, just six kilometres from the city of Tarragona. The village was considered to be part of or in the outskirts of this city in the late 13th century. The area of the municipality is 5.53 km2 and it has a population of some 5,000 people.
The town's small urban area includes an outstanding artistic ensemble that is protected as a cultural asset of local interest and architectural heritage of Catalonia. The Modernista architect Josep Maria Jujol i Gibert (1879-1949) left an extensive repertoire of his lively and artistically inquisitive genius in Els Pallaresos. As Gaudi's close collaborator, he was an integral creator and forerunner of abstract art and surrealism, as well as of the recycling of elements that he incorporated into all the fields of the plastic arts. This distinctive vocabulary, applied to his exceptional conception of architecture, created a transcendental language of his own: Modernisme. The colours of cobalt blue, yellow or gold all formed a part of his particular ethos.
There are several buildings in the town that feature the mark of his creative expressiveness. The artist's dexterity shines through in the old school complex, which later became the town hall and is now the Jujol Centre (1920), in the restoration of Casa Andreu (1920), in the grille of Casa Solé (1927), in the renovation of Ca l'Emília (1944) and in the parish church of Sant Salvador (1945-47).
But the most valuable work of his legacy was undoubtedly the complete restoration of Casa Bofarull beginning in 1914. With its imaginative façades and details, it features a beautiful post Neo-Mudejar style gallery. The original staircase inside the house, with its innovative angles and railing, rises up with the tower that encloses it, which is crowned by a parabolic angel displaying allegorical paintings of the seasons of the year that he traced with his own hands.
The first historical dissemination conference of the Camp de Tarragona took place in the year 2021, and the town intends to use this initiative in order to highlight its heritage and the extraordinary legacy of this architect from Tarragona. Els Pallaresos has become a reference in promoting the work of Josep Maria Jujol i Gibert and in launching the Jujol manifesto, which is led by the mayor's office itself. The architect's two children, Josep Maria and Teresa, live in the town and are the custodians of the valuable Jujol Archive, and it is also here, in the family mausoleum, where the artist is buried. This first edition of the conference focused on 1918, when Jujol crowned Casa Bofarull by positioning its guardian angel lightning rod, a symbol of the town that he himself sculpted.