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The Casa dels Canonges (Cannon House), situated in the Gothic Quarter, is the official residence of the president of the
Generalitat de Catalunya (Autonomous Government of Catalonia).
Its name goes back to the XIV Century, when the building served as a residence to the regular canons of the Seo that had abandoned the closure. In the XX Century Francesc Macià i Llussà, the first president of the Generalitat, used this building as an official residence and his successors (Lluís Companys i Jover and Josep Tarradellas i Joan) gave continuity to this tradition. Jordi Pujol i Soley was the first
president who refused to use the
Casa dels Canonges as a private residence and, since then, all the other maximum mandatory Catalans have followed his path.
The building is articulated surrounding a patio, where there is staircase that drives up to the noble floor of the building. It was restored with a huge reform was made in the ´20´s, during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, by the architects
Joan Rubió i Bellver and Jeroni Martorell, who contribute the Neo-gothic elements that is characterised today.
The clearest example is the famous bridge, inspired from the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, that was constructed over Bisbe street in 1928 and unites the house with the
Palau de la Generalitat (Government Palace).