Casa Fuster: The Gateway to Gràcia

Why is it significant?

At the very top of Passeig de Gràcia, where the grand avenue narrows and the little gardens of the Jardinets begin, stands a gleaming white building with slender pink columns along its base and a rounded tower on the corner. This is Casa Fuster, and it is the doorway to a different Barcelona.

Key Facts

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At the very top of Passeig de Gràcia, where the grand avenue narrows and the little gardens of the Jardinets begin, stands a gleaming white building with slender pink columns along its base and a rounded tower on the corner. This is Casa Fuster, and it is the doorway to a different Barcelona. It was the last building Lluís Domènech i Montaner, the architect of the Palau de la Música Catalana, designed in Barcelona. It went up between 1908 and 1911 for Mariano Fuster, and the story goes that he meant it as a tribute to his wife, Consol Fabra. Nothing was spared: white marble, those rose-coloured columns, and a cost that made it, by many accounts, the most expensive house in the city at the time. Its fortunes rose and fell with the reputation of Modernisme. In the second half of the twentieth century, when the style was out of fashion, Casa Fuster was threatened with demolition, like several of its contemporaries. It survived, and since the early 2000s it has been a hotel, its ground-floor café a meeting point between Gràcia and the rest of the city. Look at where it stands: on the hinge between two worlds. Behind you lie the straight lines of Cerdà's Eixample. Ahead runs Carrer Gran de Gràcia, a narrower, slightly wandering street that was once the country road from the city gates to a separate town. Until 1897 Gràcia was not part of Barcelona at all. It was a vila, a town with its own council, its own square, its own politics, and a reputation for rebellion. It was annexed by royal decree, together with several other neighbouring towns, and many here were firmly against it. People in Gràcia still talk about going down to Barcelona when they head into the centre. Over the next couple of hours you will see why. Walk up Gran de Gràcia for a few minutes, then turn left towards Plaça de la Llibertat, where an iron market is waiting.