Former Colònia Güell textile factory

Full-cycle corduroy and velvet factory (spinning, weaving, dyeing, finishing and ancillary services). It employed 1,300 workers around 1915, some of whom came from neighbouring villages. In 1908 it had more than 24,000 spindles and 760 looms.

Colònia Güell S.A. was restructured in 1973. The factory was closed; spinning and weaving were transferred to another factory of the Bertrand Serra Group; dyeing and finishing were performed at a new factory built in Ordis, in the Alt Empordà district. At the time there were 17,000 spindles and 390 looms, which were sent for scrap. 832 people were made redundant.

It is now an industrial complex with a community of owners from different industrial and service sector branches.

In 1944 the Güell family and their partners sold the factory and the whole surrounding complex to Textiles Bertrand Serra, who managed it up until 1973.

During the Civil War the factory was collectivised, and on 11 September 1938 was bombed by the nationalist air force, causing little damage.

The closure of the factory meant the end of the Colònia Güell as such. The houses were sold off to the workers who lived there, the social amenities were purchased by the Local Authority, the school entered public hands, while the factory town became simply another district of Santa Coloma de Cervelló, unconnected with the company.

The spinning building, the old dyeing plant and a number of finishing buildings were refurbished by the architect  Òscar Tusquets as offices. The refurbishment was awarded the Bonaplata Refurbishment Award in 2006, by the Association of the Museum of Science and Technology and Industrial Archaeology of Catalonia.

Anglès: Author of the text: Josep Padró i Margó, local historian.