The family Gaudí i Cornet

Francesc Gaudí i Serra and Antònia Cornet i Bertran married in Reus in 1843. Both they were sons of cupper smiths, had already 30 years of age and did not sign wedding chapters, for which -according to the Catalan civil right- they married in strict regime of separation of goods. Francesc was a generous and audacious man, who had matured precociously on remaining at the fifteen years as a head of family of his mother Rosa la Calderera and his six minor brothers. He had a great sense of family, a combative and irreducible spirit, a great tenacity to struggle against the adversities that the life kept on presenting for him and a very clear understanding of the social transformations of the 19th century. The marriage Gaudí i Cornet settled in a home rented of the street of Sant Joan in Reus, where Francesc had his own workshop of coppersmith, different of that of his father-in-law, brought by a son of him and brother-in-law of Francesc, Anton Cornet. Francesc Gaudí was practically alone at work, with help of a sun apprentice and of his sons. On the other hand, at least during 1857, Francesc Gaudí was official fitter of weights and measures of the Town Council of Reus, with an annual salary of 247 real of fleece. In festive das or during the summer, the Gaudí i Cornet went to the house of Riudoms, where the coppersmith workshop had gone to being a mere warehouse. Of the house, like of sic allotments, Francesc was owner, and usufructuary his mother, Rosa la Calderera. The most important was the Mas de la Calderera, very well supplied with water for a mine, that it forced the Gaudí to be present frequently during the good season. It had two day's wages of irrigated region and vineyard, the crop of which generated an economical surplus. In this estate it raised a "maset", a small hut of a floor alone, without home of fire, which it could serve during the day but was not suitable to reside, nor permanently even storm. It was 2,3 kilometers in the center of the town of Riudoms. And there were animals of farmyard. They were an urban family of Reus but with deep roots in the small rural estate of Riudoms, still cultivated personally. They were part of the small craftsmen that, for the industrialization of Catalonia, was in the process of extinction or conversion. The Gaudí i Cornet had five sons. The great one, Rosa, was born on the 5th May of 1844, before the year of the wedding of the parents. The second, Maria, was born on the 27th June of 1845 and death before the five years, on the 10th January of 1850. The third, Francesc, was born on the 26th March of 1848 and death at two years, on the 20th April of 1850. The quarter, of new Francesc, was born the 27 May of 1851. The fifth and last was Anton, born at two quarters of ten of Wednesday 25 June of 1852. All sons were baptized in Sant Pere de Reus.

Josep Maria Tarragona, Novemeber 3, 2006
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