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The Gaudí Centre itself forms part of the city’s
Ruta del Modernisme
, a
marked trail around the many buildings and mansions erected in the
modernista
style at the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth.This
was a period when Reus was Catalunya’s second city (after Barcelona), with a
merchant class made wealthy by the trade in wine and olive oil and, later,
textiles, fabrics and ceramics. Gaudí may never have built here, but his contem-
porary, Lluís Domènech i Montaner did. His
Casa Navàs
(1901), across Plaça
Mercadal from the Centre, is considered Reus’ finest townhouse – still privately
owned, it’s usually open two or three times a week (including every Saturday)
for tours of the virtually intact period interior. The same architect’s
Institute
Pere Mata
(1898), a
modernista
sanatorium on the edge of the city centre, is also
often open for visits – it was one of the Domènech i Montaner’s biggest projects
and prefigures his equally dramatic Barcelona Hospital de la Santa Creu i de
Sant Pau.You might as well also divert the few minutes from the commercial
centre to see
Gaudí’s birthplace
(c/Sant Vicenç 4): the house is not original,
but a plaque marks the site while, just down the street, outside a school, is a
rather touching sculpture of the young Gaudí playing marbles.
Almost everything else to see lies within a clearly defined circuit of boule-
vards.The main church is that of the city’s patron saint,
Sant Pere
, a couple of
minutes’ walk from the Gaudí Centre.This is where Gaudí was baptized (there’s
a plaque by the baptismal chapel, to the left of the main entrance) and the
church also boasts the heart of Reus’ Number Two Son,
modernista
artist Marià
Fortuny i Marsal (the plaque here reads “he gave his soul to heaven, his fame to
the world, and his heart to his country”). Behind the church is an arcaded
square with cafés,
Plaça de les Peixateries Velles
, that was once the fish
market, while
Plaça del Mercadal
itself used to be the site of the general
market – the numbers you can see etched in the square’s paving indicated the
position of the stalls. Nowadays, the daily market takes place at the
Mercat
Central
on c/Sant Joan, not far from the train station.
Practicalities
Ryanair arrivals at
Reus airport
, 3km outside town, can catch connecting
buses direct to Barcelona or down to the coast, while local bus #50 runs into
town, via the train station.There are hourly trains to Reus (via Tarragona) from
Passeig de Gràcia and Barcelona Sants, and the journey takes an hour and 20
minutes. It’s a fifteen-minute walk from the
train station
into the centre, or
there are taxis outside the station.
The
Oficina de Turisme
is inside the Gaudí Centre on Plaça del Mercadal
(Mon–Sat 10am–2pm & 4–8pm, mid-June to mid-Sept 10am–8pm, Sun all
year 10am–2pm;
T
977 010 670 or 902 360 200,
W
www.reus.cat/turisme),
where you can pick up a good map of town.Ask here about
guided tours
(not
always in English) that include the centre and the Ruta del Modernisme, giving
access to the buildings mentioned above and others that are normally closed to
the public.
Restaurants
are plentiful; all those reviewed below are right in the centre.
Cerveseria Ferreteria
, Pl. de la Farinera 10 (
T
977 340 326), is a popular place for
tapas and grills – the interesting interior is a converted nineteenth-century
ironmonger’s and there’s a pretty
terrassa
in the square outside. There’s another
good beer-and-tapas place round the corner,
La Cerveseria
, c/de lesVallroquetes 4
(
T
658 771 841; opens 5pm), which brews its own beers.Traditional places, with
market-led Catalan cuisine and good-value
menús del dia
day and night (€20–25)
,
include
Florida
, c/Metge Fortuny 2, at Plaça del Mercadal (
T
977 342 077), and
OUT OF THE CITY
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Reus