The story of Can Severí
Can Severí is the legacy of Severino Gómez’s life, a story of work and sacrifice, of words spoken that become fulfilled promises, and of love for a town, Besalú, that he carried with him for decades until he was able to live there at the end of his days.
Severino Gómez Villar was born in 1900 in Tresaldeas, near Quireza in the province of Pontevedra, one of twelve children.
It is an area of stonemasons, and he and two other brothers learn the trade from their father. But, like so many other Galicians, he left his homeland and worked in Portugal, Madrid,... After the civil war, he becomes responsible for the restoration of the monuments in the northeastern part of the peninsula. In Catalonia, he works in Girona, Sant Pere de Rodes, Porqueres, Beget, Molló, Sant Joan de les Abadesses, Ripoll, la Seu d’Urgell, Poblet, Santes Creus, Vallbona de les Monges, Tarragona, and Lleida among others.
One of these projects is the restoration of Sant Vicenç de Besalú, burned down during the war, and Severino falls in love with that town. So much so that he promises the sisters Maria and Mercè, the housekeepers of the boarding house where he is, that he will build a house there and that the two will be able to live there. And, although Severino continues to constantly establish himself wherever his work as a conservator takes him, in 1961 he fulfills that promise: he builds the Can Severí house and offers it to Maria and Mercè to move into. Finally, in 1975 he retires and puts an end to decades of nomadic life by also settling under that same roof with his dog Cris.
The house has a double connection with all those road years, though. The same stonemasons in his team who called him buxe (boss in the language of the canteiros) are the ones who build the stately facade, and Severino replicates in his home elements and details of some of the buildings he had restored during the years of work.
There is therefore a thread that connects Can Severí with the life of stonemasons almost a century ago. While here, we come into contact with those people who looked at the sea at night from the mountain illuminated with carbide lights, who played the accordion at the end of a working day to cheer up their colleagues, who returned to Galicia for Christmas after being away all year. That life that no longer exists lingers on in the spirit of this house, as one more mark than they themselves would have left on the stones.
