From the elaborate turrets of Sagrada Familia to the tiled dragon which wraps its tail around the roof of Casa Batlló, Gaudi is synonymous with Barcelona, but he is not the full architectural story. Stay for a night in the newly renovated Grand Hotel Central and you will be introduced to another side of the city’s cultural history.
Designed in 1926 as the private home of politician and patron of the arts Francesc Cambó, the building that houses the hotel is a beautiful example of the Noucentisme movement – a more rational and ordered reaction to modernism and the surrealists. Look up from your sun lounger as you lie beside the infinity pool (with peerless views across the gothic quarter) and you will glimpse flourishing orange trees. These were planted under the watchful eye of Cambó who was one of the first in the city to move his main residence from the first floor to the rooftop.
It’s a pioneering penthouse that was still inhabited by descendants of the family until recently. Tours of this hidden gem can be arranged, and there are plans to hopefully make this time capsule of an apartment part of the hotel’s cultural plans (after negotiation with city planning).
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’Our goal is to connect with the spirit of the building, past and present, and with the visionary and hedonistic, cosmopolitan yet local mentality of its creator, Francesc Cambó,’ explains María Contreras Palmada, general manager of the hotel.
Indeed, every decision in the hotel’s redesign has aimed to draw inspiration from that ethos. For the interiors, a baton was passed to London-based interior design studio Sagrada (known for prominent projects such as London Art’s Club, Maison Breguet Paris and St Regis Venice), who were heavily influenced by Casa Cambó’s secret garden.
‘We nod subtly towards the garden in the textiles, lighting, and the flower-shaped rosettes on the ceilings,’ says Sagrada’s director Juan Álvarez. ‘One of the most important changes,’ he adds, ‘has been the utilisation of natural light. We wanted to reintroduce light into the building and allow the Barcelona sun to flood the spaces.’
The rooms and suites, with their pale wood slatting separating the beds from the ensuites and their furniture, designed as a nod to the Noucentisme style (clean lines, muted colours), are all luminous and warm.
Sagrada’s personal link to Barcelona is clear from its name and, true to Cambó’s dedication to promoting Catalan creativity, it is not the only local connection to be found from the Grand Hotel Central’s lobby to its suites, rooms and rooftop. There are works by renowned local artists throughout the hotel, such as Ángels Ribé, Ramón Herreros, Josep Grau Garriga, Victor Pimstein, and Subirachs, selected by local art curator Victoria Combalía.
Even the scent of the hotel was considered – its signature fragrance, ‘Carner Barcelona’ has been created by master perfumer Alberto Murillas – and the staff uniforms were designed by Catalan fashion star Josep Abril.
The next step in this celebration of Catalan culture will be the opening of new restaurant Can Bo at street level in September. Due to offer a seasonally changing tapas menu of local produce, it will further the mission to make this hotel a reflection of the best of Barcelona.
It’s an inside joke that the restaurant’s name Can Bo is not just a reference to the original owner’s family name Cambó, but also plays on the Catalan worn ‘can’, which evokes a sense of home and belonging and ‘bo’, which means good. It’s fitting, as the welcome here is always good. From £380, grandhotelbarcelona.com
