Cerabella

Cerabella – Candlemakers in Barcelona since 1862

Cerabella has been shaping wax by hand for more than 160 years. Its story began in 1862, when Francesca Abella opened a small workshop on Plaça del Pedró in Barcelona’s El Raval neighbourhood. In those early days, wax was bleached beneath the Mediterranean sun and candles were made for a simple but essential purpose: bringing light into the darkness.

Electricity eventually changed everyday life – and transformed the role of the candle. What had once been a necessity could now become something far more expressive: a source of atmosphere, a decorative object and, in the hands of Cerabella, a small sculpture made from wax. Since the 1960s, the family-run manufactory has combined its inherited knowledge with an enduring curiosity for new shapes, colours, textures, fragrances and ways of working with flame.

Cerabella’s production remains closely connected to traditional craftsmanship. Candles are carefully drawn, twisted or cast in Barcelona, retaining the subtle variations that distinguish a handmade object from an anonymous industrial product. Wax is treated as a creative material in its own right – capable of appearing architectural, organic, playful or unexpectedly monumental.

Collaborations with designers, artists and architects have become an important part of the company’s identity. Jordi Labanda, Sybilla, Helena Rohner, Luki Huber, Michele Oka Doner and Ricardo Bofill are among the names that have explored the sculptural possibilities of candlelight with Cerabella.

The Contemporum. selection reflects this remarkable diversity: slender MATCH candles, vividly coloured Lollipop dinner candles, fiery red corals, Sybilla’s surreal cactus and Jordi Labanda’s sculptural LABV and Totem designs. Objects made to be lit, certainly – but beautiful enough to command a room long before the flame appears.