○ Unique Houses
Arús Library
Paseo Sant Joan, 26 – Barcelona
The books of masons, workers and anarchists
The Arús Public Library, located in Passeig de Sant Joan in Barcelona, was opened on March 24, 1895, through the determination of Rossend Arús and designed to benefit the education of the working people. The library was set up in the flat where Arús lived.
History
In the beginning, it had a collection of 24,000 volumes, which included all the areas of knowledge of that time and which today are still preserved there. This collection includes very diverse subjects, such as philosophy, religion, social sciences, freemasonry, law, languages, biology, botany, medicine, art, music, literature, geography and history. It also includes general works, such as dictionaries, press, etc.
Currently, the Arús Public Library is a research centre specialised in contemporary social movements. It is open to the public, although because of its specialisation, it is now aimed at researchers, university students and people interested in the society of the 19th and 20th centuries. The current collection contains 75,323 volumes.
Rossend Arús i Arderiu
Rossend Arús i Arderiu was born in Barcelona in 1845. He was a philanthropist and a free thinker who distanced himself from the ideas of his time, while also being a deeply anti-clerical and tolerant character. A man of the theatre, a theatre promoter and entrepreneur, he was also recognised as a social activist: he was co-founder of the Centre Català, of which Valentí Almirall and Frederic Soler (Pitarra) were also members. He joined the Freemasons on May 16, 1866, in Fraternity lodge no. 1 of Barcelona, and in 1884 he became a 33rd degree mason. He also appears as a member of other lodges; he created Avant lodge no. 149, which had a Catalanist profile and of which he was a revered teacher.
What will we visit?
The visit to the Arús Library allows us to delve into the history of its foundation in 1895 and its collections surrounding the social movements of the 19th and 20th centuries.