○ Unique Houses
Palauet Casades
Mallorca, 283 – Barcelona
The lawyers’ mansio
The Palauet Casades, current headquarters of the Illustrious Bar Association of Barcelona, is located on Carrer de Mallorca. It is built on a plot of land with a building surface of approximately 3,665 m², the result of the purchase of several plots by Pau Casades i Espoy On November 17, 1882, Casades asked the Barcelona City Council for permission to build a residential building with a garden and vegetable garden.
History
The entire residence was completed in 1885. The plans for the project were signed by Antoni Serra Pujals, a master builder of the time. The place chosen by Casades to build his private home was still a place where very little had been built. This is because, until the 1870s, this area was occupied by the well-known Camps Elisis, the most important leisure and recreation area in the city.
In 1924, the Barcelona Bar Association bought the building to make it its headquarters. Over the years, the Association’s needs have meant that the spaces have been expanded, faithful to the originals. In the 1950s, the architect Agustí Borrell i Sensat was commissioned to expand the building to install a library and an auditorium. In the arrangements made at the creation of the Association it was foreseen that “to the extent that the funds of the Association allow it”, a library would be created for the exclusive use of registered lawyers. The new library is inspired by British ones, solely featuring wooden furniture. Also worth noting is the Sala dels Usatges, inaugurated in 1962 when the College commemorated the 900th anniversary of the Rules of Catalonia, Barcelona’s first civil code, which explained usages and customs. They were the first Catalan laws.
Pau Casades i Espoy
Pau Casades i Espoy was born in Agramunt in 1819. As a young man, and on an unknown date he left his hometown to go to Barcelona. Arriving in the city, he started working in the companies of the banker Manuel Girona.
With the experience and knowledge acquired, Casades was able to open his own business, dedicated to prints on fabric using wooden moulds. At the end of the century, he liquidated the business and sold it to a Basque industrialist. From that moment on, he dedicated himself to investing in the purchase of developable land in Barcelona. He married Dolors Xinxó Marton and they had an only child, Francesc Casades Xinxó. In 1882, having already become a successful businessman, he decided to build himself a single-family house in Barcelona’s Eixample district.
The Barcelona Bar Association
The current headquarters of the Barcelona Bar Association is made up of three buildings built in different periods. Of the three, the oldest already existed when the law corporation decided to change its headquarters to a property located on the chamfer of Carrer de Mallorca with that of Roger de Llúria. At that time (1924), the residence of the Casades family was acquired, a small garden space and outbuildings of the old stables. Over the years, the Association expanded its headquarters from the acquisition of land and the construction of a building in the 1950s, and another in the 1970s.
What will we visit?
We will visit the Palauet Casades, current headquarters of the Illustrious Bar Association of Barcelona. We will also be able to see the Library, internationally considered one of the most important in the world of law.