Can Pardal or the “Clock Factory”

Introduction:
At the end of the 19th century, in the face of the growth of Gràcia, the owners of Can Pardal decided to urbanize their lands and demolish the farmhouse to build the building we see today with a porticoed gallery and a tower with a clock and bells. It seems, however, that before it was demolished, this farmhouse housed an illustrious character: Albert Billeter, a Swiss clockmaker, as could only be the case, who settled in Gràcia for nearly thirty years.

Content:
“Factory of Tower Clocks for churches, Railways, factories, and country houses. Surveillance clocks, electric telegraphs, and scientific instruments,” was the name used by the Swiss Albert Billeter to advertise his establishment. Billeter had left La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland, where he studied clockmaking, passed through Italy, and ended up in the Vila de Gràcia. The first thing he did upon arrival was to create a large astronomical clock that showed the displacement of the earth and the moon concerning the sun, displayed the local time and that of 20 other meridians, among other data. Without thinking twice, Billeter sent a letter to the Congress of Deputies in Madrid in which, after pointing out that a “national clockmaking” was needed to make Spain independent of foreign countries, he offered the astronomical clock in exchange for a sum of money that would allow him to open a permanent workshop. Congress bought the clock, which still works and is located at the Palace of Congress. It must have been quite a sensation because soon after, the other chamber of representatives, the Senate, commissioned Billeter to make an even larger astronomical clock. Billeter took nearly ten years to complete it, and with the political turmoil of the time, the Senate lost interest, leaving the clock without a buyer. Eventually, it came into the hands of the Moragues family of cabinetmakers, who created the clock’s furniture. When Billeter was no longer in Barcelona, the clock was displayed at the Science Pavilion of the 1888 Universal Exposition, where it won a gold medal. Later, it was acquired by the Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona, which still possesses it. Billeter was also the author of the clock of the Gràcia Bell Tower, which was replaced in 1929 when it was transferred to the hotel in Plaça Espanya that served as the entrance to the site of that year’s Universal Exposition. In 1952, it was dismantled from the hotel and has since gone missing. In 1865, Billeter built, at the request of the City Council, the clock of the Cathedral of Barcelona, which is still in operation.

Rutes científiques de Barcelona