As you go up Passeig de Nostra Senyora del Coll, in Barcelona’s Vallcarca neighbourhood, you’ll see many iconic buildings. But probably none of them can tell the stories that the walls of the Josepa Marsans i Peix House, currently the Barcelona Xanascat hostel, have witnessed.

History

In 1906, the family who founded the Banca Marsans and the travel agency by the same name had the architect Juli Mariné build this house, which became their primary residence. At the street level, you will find a sumptuous wrought-iron doorway inviting you to enter. Next comes an ascent covered with climbing plants leading to the house's entrance. The Marsans family residence unquestionably boasts examples of the most luxurious Modernist architecture, which is particularly interesting here because of its harmonious combination with the Neo-Moorish style. In fact, the entire building is full of historicist references. That's because in its quest for Catalonia's national roots, Modernism also explored mediaeval styles (Romanesque, Moorish) and strove to integrate them into modernity via the Neo-Romanesque and Neo-Moorish styles.

Inside, the Modernist borders on the lower part of the walls merge with Moorish engravings, which combine blue, red and golden tones in the relief inscriptions ‘Allah is great’. Additionally, the floral decorations, wrought iron and polychrome stained-glass windows complete this stylistic syncretism. Together they are a clear display of how the Catalan bourgeoisie showed off their economic wherewithal and social standing via art.

But the history of this house did not stop with the Marsans family. If the walls could talk, they would tell us that the house also suffered from the consequences of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). In addition to having lost its original windows on the main entrance, the house was expropriated and occupied to become a hospital. Later, it became the barracks of the Moorish troops, perhaps—in a cruel irony—because of the house's Neo-Moorish style. The walls are not the only part that conserve history; so are the people who lived there. Once, when looking through the house, a Polish man who was visiting recalled the orphans’ residence where he had been housed in around 1940, in the middle of the Second World War. Later, the building came under the aegis of the social services and was run by nuns. It served as a girls’ social centre, and thus the Josepa Marsans i Peix House became the Hogar el Pinar and later the Hogar Escolar Nuestra Señora de Montserrat. Finally, the building came to be owned by the Government of Catalonia in 1983 with the name of Barcelona Xanascat, and it became the Government of Catalonia’s first youth hostel in Barcelona. The charm of the old house and its gardens have not disappeared. Surrounded by other Modernist buildings in the Vallcarca district, the Mare de Déu de Montserrat hostel is catalogued as European Culture Heritage.

Architecture

The building is charming because of its genuine, accomplished combination of Modernist styles and Moorish architecture. In front of what used to be the Josepa Marsans i Peix House, there is a landscaped entrance that creates a balcony with views of Barcelona's landscape. It highlights the horizontal facade and the imposts separating the building’s two floors, without ignoring the balcony on the second floor, which has semicircular lintels in a classicist design. And most notable is the spectacular semicircular stained-glass door which leads inside the house. The most brilliant touch comes from the roof tiles, which reflect the sunlight because of the special material from which they are made.

However, the surprise comes when you enter it and are enveloped in the Moorish atmosphere, yet without totally leaving the Modernist details behind. Here, the building's square layout is arranged around a small space that imitates an inner courtyard, comprised of arcades in a Neo-Arabic style. The columns and the white marble floor glow as they reflect the bright colours of the stained glass on the ceiling.

Today, on the centennial of the house's construction, the hostel has wholly preserved the structure of the former Josepa Marsans i Peix House: its two storeys, basement and attic. But it also has a new attached building which is joined by a bridge to the original one, which also keeps it wholly independent. Additionally, the uses and purposes of the rooms inside the house have changed. Thus, when you enter and look right, a computer room occupies what used to be a chapel, whose ceiling fresco is still conserved. An antique piano and a table owned by the nuns who once lived in the house are still kept as decorative features.