On Thursday 12 November 2026, thousands of people gathered in Plaça del Mercadal in Reus for the Casa Navàs turret celebration. The Catalan Modernist façade became the stage for a show combining projections, lighting and live music. It culminated in the unveiling and illumination of the turret, which had been destroyed in the bombing raids of 1938. For many of those in the square, it was their first chance to look up at a silhouette they had previously known only from photographs.
The Casa Navàs façade tells its story
Journalist Coia Ballesté hosted the evening, which opened with a film about the building’s heritage. The speakers included the mayor of Reus, Sandra Guaita, the Catalan Government’s delegate in Tarragona, Lucía López, and Xavier Martínez i Serra, owner of Casa Navàs and president of MaserGrup. A poetry performance in eight languages introduced the show created for the occasion.
Alba G. Corral’s projection mapping incorporated the façade’s architectural forms and decoration into the story. The projections recalled the building’s Modernist splendour, while first-hand accounts placed the loss of the turret in the context of the bombing of Reus. The show traced the years when the turret was missing and brought the story up to its reconstruction.
Mariona Escoda performed live, and the voices of the Orfeó Reusenc choir accompanied the projections in a performance that made use of the building’s windows and balconies. Once the turret was illuminated, Ginestà and their full band took over and brought the celebration to a close with a concert in the square.
The turret returns to the Reus skyline
The turret was part of Lluís Domènech i Montaner’s original design at the beginning of the twentieth century. Its reconstruction, championed by Xavier Martínez, brings back a feature that had been missing from the square for 88 years. Martínez said that sharing the unveiling with so many people made all the work behind it worthwhile.
Thank you to everyone who filled Plaça del Mercadal to share this moment. The turret is once again part of the everyday landscape of Reus, there for everyone to see when they look up from the square.
The Casa Navàs façade and turret lit up during the celebration on 12 November.
