Bayferrox iron oxide pigments from LANXESS also provide valuable service in the restoration of historic buildings and monuments. One example are the “Quatre Columnes”, a group of four Ionic columns that, after more than 80 years in their original location, were recently re-erected at the foot of the Montjuïc in Barcelona, Spain. The concrete columns are colored a light brown shade, which Europigments S. L., a subsidiary of LANXESS based in Barcelona, formulated on the basis of Bayferrox 610 powder. “Our pigment formulation lends the columns a natural, warm and opaque shade that is patterned after the original and corresponds harmoniously with the surroundings,” says Isabel Zamora, technical product expert at Europigments.

Each of the four new columns is 20 meters tall. They are made of hollow pre-cast concrete elements that have been colored using a total of 700 kilograms of the brown pigment. A decisive advantage of the high-performance pigments used are their tight tolerances with respect to shade and tinting strength. “This simplifies color reproduction so that a certain shade can be precisely matched more quickly,” adds Zamora. Their chemical composition and structure ensure that the inorganic pigments are absolutely weather-, light- and UV-stable. As a result, products colored with them retain their intense shade for a long time.  

The original “Quatre Columnes” structure was erected in 1919 and demolished in 1928 during the Primo de Rivera dictatorship. Reconstruction took six months and was performed on the basis of original plans as well as historic photos and descriptions. The four columns symbolize the four stripes of “la señyera”, the Catalan flag.