While working for the city council during the 1920’s, Ángel González produced some of the best romantic palaces and historicist buildings in the city of Cáceres, in Western Spain. Some might have originally expected him to continue on that trajectory during that prosperous period in Spain, but González shifted dramatically into Functionalism, designing the most modern housing in Cáceres at his time.
This state-of-the-art housing complex from the 1930’s includes innovative displaced floor plans. It became famous for its staggered balconies, and is popularly known as “Casa de los Picos”.
Since they were quite modern-minded, it might seem natural that my grandparents lived there. They had an apartment on the top floor, their business on the ground floor, and a huge warehouse in the basement. I have only good childhood memories of that building.
González left also his fingerprint on some other Modern buildings in Cáceres from that period, such as the Norba Theater. The Norba was an ultra-modern cinema, accommodating 2000 people in 1935. It is the double the size of the biggest cinema screen ever built in Scandinavia.