Tomás Soler y Ferrer, Architecte of the “Bailía General del Real Patrimonio”

Abstract

Tomás Soler y Ferrer is known primarily as the author of the 1836 map of the ancient irrigation canal of Barcelona known as Acequia Real or Rec Comtal showing the plain of Barcelona before its urban development. This map is the culmination of a career to the service of the Bailía General del Real Patrimonio, in which already served his father, Juan Soler y Faneca, and was continued by his son, Juan Soler y Mestres. This article traces the career of Tomás Soler as an officer of the Spanish Crown and describes the administrative context of the map. The documents generated by the institutions that managed the royal heritage in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Real Intendencia de Cataluña and from 1816 Bailía General del Real Patrimonio, are essential to know the activity of one of the most important architects and hydraulic experts of the first third of the nineteenth century in Catalonia.

Keywords: hydraulic works, cartography, architecture.