Name	Torre de la Creu
Street	Calle Canalias 14
District
Place	Sant Joan Despí
Country	Spain
Built	1916
Designed	1913
Type	semidetached ho
Condition
Photos by	R.Saariste
Co-operating
Reference	Josep M.Jujol 56 J. M. Jujol by ir R. Saariste and ir V. Ligtelijn
Description	In 1913 Jujol received the ideal commission. His aunt and mother-in-law to be, Doña Josefa Romeu i Grau, the widow of Gilbert, had purchased a piece of land, and kept her promise to allow Jujol to design a holiday residence on it - just as he wanted. The edifice was to accommodate herself and her son, a good friend of Jujol's. The mass is divided into two almost identical houses, one the mirror image of the other. Although work was interrupted by the start of the first world war, the house was completed in the summer of 1916. The village was so proud of the Torre dels Ous (a nickname in Catalan meaning the 'house of eggs') that postcards were printed of the house. It was designed as a semi-detached dwelling, consisting of three wide, interlocking cylinders. The domed roofs are clad in mosaic, and at the cusps there are two taller, narrow cylinders containing staircases and belvederes. Two more cylinders join the edifice at the second floor, housing the spiral staircases to the miradors. In a renovation in 1966 the two houses were combined into one, prior to which the architect Lluis Bonet i Garí (1893) and Jujol's son tracked down the original plans, which in fact differed considerably from the finished house. The magnificent hall and staircase, which are widely depicted in books on Jujol, are not originals.