The congress took place in Barcelona from Wednesday to Saturday, 26-29 June 2013, within the framework of the 10th anniversary of the launch of the Art Nouveau European Route magazine, coupDefouet. The central theme of the congress was Art Nouveau cities and the relationship between cosmopolitanism and local tradition.

The paper presented by ESARQ professors Alberto T. Estévez, Judith Urbano, Guillem Carabí and Leonor Toro was titled “1896: Devil Iconography in Architecture” and dealt with the unprecedented discovery in a 1896 Barcelona building of a complete and systematic iconographic programme on the devil, evil, the seven deadly sins, etc, a subject rarely seen in architecture. The presentation also described similarities between the discovery and the paintings of the artist Franz Stuck.

The members of the scientific committee for the congress, which was coordinated by the Universitat de Barcelona, included experts Mireia Freixa, Francesc Fontbona, François Loyer, Françoise Aubry, Paul Greenhalgh, Hélène Guéné, J?nis Krasti?š, Teresa-M. Sala, Peter Trowles, Pilar Vélez and Gabriel P. Weisberg. The executive committee for the congress was the Municipal Institute of Urban Landscape of Barcelona City Council.