La Llotja & Porxos d'en Xifré: Where Picasso Went to School
Why is it significant?
On one side of Passeig d'Isabel II stands a solemn neoclassical palace with columns and statues; on the other, a long block of arcades with carved medallions above the arches. Stand between them for a moment.
Key Facts
| Place | La Llotja & Porxos d'en Xifré: Where Picasso Went to School |
|---|---|
| Address | Passeig d'Isabel II 1, 08003 Barcelona, Spain |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.38220, 2.18260 |
| Part of Walk | Young Picasso's Barcelona: Els Quatre Gats, La Llotja & the Merchant Streets of La Ribera |
| Generated | Generated |
On one side of Passeig d'Isabel II stands a solemn neoclassical palace with columns and statues; on the other, a long block of arcades with carved medallions above the arches. Stand between them for a moment. In the autumn of 1895, a boy of nearly fourteen crossed this street every morning, from home on one side to school on the other.
The palace is La Llotja, Barcelona's medieval sea exchange. Behind the eighteenth-century façade hides a Gothic trading hall from the fourteenth century, where merchants once struck deals on cargoes from across the Mediterranean, and for generations the building also housed the city's stock exchange. Upstairs was the Escola de la Llotja, a free school of drawing founded in 1775.
Picasso's father, José Ruiz Blasco, a painter known in the family for his pictures of pigeons, had just been given a teaching post here, and the family rented a flat across the road, in the arcaded block at number 4. His son was admitted to the advanced classes at an age when other pupils were still drawing cubes. The story goes that he finished in a single day an entrance exam meant to take a month. Whether or not it is exact, the drawings he made here survive, and they are astonishing.
The arcades across the street are the Porxos d'en Xifré, built around 1836 to 1840 by Josep Xifré, a Catalan who had made a fortune in the Americas and came home to show it. Under the arches, the restaurant Set Portes has been serving since 1836. The Llotja school would later teach Joan Miró too, which makes this crossroads one of the great nurseries of modern art.
Picasso's father soon rented him his first studio, on Carrer de la Plata just around the corner, and the family moved a few streets away. Walk that way now: take Carrer de la Plata, and follow it towards a domed baroque church whose saint gives Barcelona its biggest party.