Antonio Moya: Echoes of Catalan Modernisme in Camagüey

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the city of Camagüey came under the influence of several builders and craftsmen from Catalonia, Spain, who found in this prosperous Cuban region an ideal place to settle and work.

Among them, the Catalan master builder Antonio Moya Andreu stands out. Although his stay in the city was relatively brief, he left a distinctive mark on its architectural landscape. His work introduced some of the most singular expressions of Camagüey’s eclectic architecture at a time when local building traditions were beginning to engage with the imaginative language of Catalan Modernisme (Modernisme Català in Catalan), a distinctive interpretation of Art Nouveau that flourished in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and, through the work of these immigrants, found new expressions in Cuba.

House at 41 Finlay Avenue

This house has undergone several modifications and color changes over time. Photograph: Diango Esquivel Andino, 2011.

Built in 1921, this residence follows the general principles of the Camagüey eclectic house, a typology that became firmly established during the first half of the twentieth century. Yet its façade reveals a much freer and more expressive architectural language, evident in its undulating roofline, the sweeping arches of the porch, and the ornamental treatment of its surfaces.

The crowning feature of the building, with its wavy parapet interrupted by a small turret, establishes a direct connection to one of Antoni Gaudí’s most celebrated architectural gestures in Casa Batlló: the dragon’s back pierced by the sword of Saint George. Deeply rooted in Catalan cultural tradition, this symbolic reference is reinterpreted here through a local sensibility, becoming a distinctive landmark along Finlay Avenue.

Casa Batlló (1904–1906), Barcelona, Spain. One of Antoni Gaudí’s most significant works and one of the most spectacular examples of Catalan Modernisme. Photograph: Diango Esquivel Andino, 2023.

The modernista influence extends beyond the building’s silhouette. Decorative Art Nouveau tiles and handcrafted wrought-iron work reinforce an aesthetic vision closely linked to the flowing forms of nature, one of the defining characteristics of the movement.

Taken as a whole, the house represents one of the most remarkable examples of the dialogue between Camagüey’s eclectic architecture and the imaginative world of Catalan Modernisme.

Decorative tiles on the façade of the house at 41 Finlay Avenue. Note the Art Nouveau design, with flowing, stylized forms inspired by vegetation. Photograph by Diango Esquivel Andino, 2011.

The Grotto of Casino Campestre

The grotto is one of the most beloved features of the Casino Campestre. Photograph: Diango Esquivel Andino, 2017.

Built in 1919 using ferrocement, this artificial grotto is one of the most distinctive features of Casino Campestre, Camagüey’s large urban park. Conceived as a sculptural structure integrated into the natural landscape, it evokes eroded rock formations and natural caves, creating a picturesque architectural feature that blends with the surrounding vegetation.

The work bears visual affinities with the rocky compositions of Parc Samà, designed by Josep Fontserè, as well as with certain formal devices employed in Parc Güell, by Antoni Gaudí, particularly in the way architecture and nature appear to merge into a single expressive material. This organic aesthetic — so characteristic of Catalan Modernisme — is reinterpreted here through a more intuitive and artisanal local sensibility.

Parc Güell (1900–1914), Barcelona, Spain. Designed by Antoni Gaudi, is a key reference for the organic language of Catalan Modernism. Photograph by Diango Esquivel Andino, 2023.

Beyond its Catalan resonances, the grotto possesses a character of its own within the Cuban landscape: a hybrid work that lies somewhere between architecture, sculpture, and landscape artifice, where manual craftsmanship and expressive intent prevail over academic convention.

Although Antonio Moya’s presence in Camagüey was relatively short-lived, he produced works that introduced a forward-looking architectural vision strongly shaped by Modernisme. His designs contributed to transforming local aesthetic preferences and opened the way for freer and more decorative expressions within Camagüey’s eclectic architecture.

Among his lost works was the building that housed the former Tibidabo Soap Factory, a structure of unmistakably Gaudí-inspired character, incorporating references to the formal language of both the Sagrada Família and Casa Vicens. Its architectural significance, however, was not sufficiently appreciated, and by the early 2000s the building had disappeared entirely.

Photograph of the Casino Campestre grotto in an early 20th‑century postcard.

The two surviving works discussed here clearly demonstrate how Moya reinterpreted Catalan Modernisme within the Cuban context, adapting it to new scales, materials, and cultural sensibilities. Rather than reproducing European models literally, he transformed them, filtering them through local building traditions and integrating them naturally into the urban landscape of Camagüey.

His legacy demonstrates that, even far from Catalonia, the spirit of Modernisme found new ways to express itself. In Camagüey, Antonio Moya transformed those influences into an architecture that was profoundly local, guided by reinterpretation and adaptation rather than replication. His work offers a compelling example of how foreign influences were assimilated in Cuba — not through imitation, but through a creative dialogue that merged and reinvented them within the island’s own cultural identity.

House at 41 Finlay Avenue, Camagüey, Cuba. Photograph by Diango Esquivel Andino, 2011.

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