Hotel Orient, Hotel España and Hotel Casa Fuster (Cafè Vienès)

We have talked about bars, restaurants and the typical coffees that keep on them a lot of history about Barcelona and its population. Now we want to present another kind of meeting point that was also really popular in our city; the hotels and its bars. 

The first one is Hotel Orient because is the oldest hotel that was built in Barcelona. It was inaugurated in 1842 with the name Fonda d’Orient and it wasn’t Hotel Orient until 1882. This change was influenced by international tourism that didn’t understand the first name. During the late XX century this hotel had the best salons where took place fancy dress balls, popular parties celebrated with important people of Barcelona. A curious anecdote of this epoch was the strange present that Mawlay ‘Abd al Hafiz, sultan of Morocco, gave to the hotel thanking the good treatment; an elephant called Júlia. 

Another important hotel that we want to present here is Hotel España. It is today an important example of modernism architecture hidden in Sant Pau Street. It was decorated in 1903 by Lluís Domènech I Montaner and during all its history this hotel has welcome a lot of guests and costumers.  In its indoor area you can enjoy an excellent example of modernism art with works by Ramon Casas as this luxury diner under the sea. You can still visit it in Sant Pau Street.  

 

 The last one is Hotel Casa Fuster with its own coffee, Cafè Vienès. This bar was also made by the architect Lluís Domenech I Montaner in 1908. As the other places that we show in this brief itinerary, Cafè Vienès is a meeting point of intellectuals and artist of Barcelona that share this room with the sophisticated guests of the hotel.