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Although today’s story is very short due to the lack of information, it would be unforgivable if it disappeared from the memory of Barcelona. This city saw how the Almirall Widow House was built and, also, how it disappeared.
In my accounts of missing or deteriorated buildings built at the end of the 19th century and a large part of the 20th century, I have always emphasized that part of the destruction of the modernist fabric occurred during the times of the dictatorship and the mayor of the time, José María of Porcioles.
On this occasion, regarding the executing hand of the disappearance of the Widow Armirall’s house, Porcioles was only the executioner. The sentence had come to him many years before, dictated by municipal governments prior to the civil war.
The house that I am going to talk about in this article had an ephemeral life, since circumstances caused its owners to die prematurely and, although its disappearance took place during the dictatorship, in 1957, when José María de Porcioles was mayor, the house had been orphaned in 1918.
The house was built in 1900, by the architect Josep Domènech i Estapà, at number 83 Paseo de Gracia and was owned by Ramón Almirall, a prominent businessman in the textile industry. Due to his premature death, the house became the property of Josefa Trius i Rodó, wife of Ramón Armirall, for which reason it was known from then on as Casa Viuda Almirall.
The façade was divided into four parts that gave shape to the building. It consisted of a semi-basement with three windows, low doors that gave light and served for the entry of products. Normally these basements were dedicated at that time to warehouses and a quarter corresponded to the entrance door.
The building had a flight of ten marble steps leading to the lobby, which served as the entrance to the mezzanine and from which the stairs to the upper floors led.
The mezzanine had three tall windows with a rounded finish at the top. On the main floor, two viewpoints at the ends were joined by a continuous stone balcony.
The following two floors continued with the viewpoints, but the balconies were already individual and the railings were made of wrought iron.
In the fourth, the construction was completely different, the viewpoints disappeared and, in their place, two majestic balconies appeared with semicircular finishes, which gave continuity to two striking peak-shaped elements that crowned each end of the façade.
With the death, in 1918, of Josefa Trius, the main floor happened in 1920 to be occupied by an ear, nose and throat clinic. Directed by the specialist Cusí i Vidal.
With a real ignorance of what happened during the period of the civil war, the first news that is known about the house comes in September 1939, with the installation of the offices of the film producer and distributor Balet y Blay.
Film production and distribution company created on May 7, 1938 by the businessman Ramón Balet and the distributor José María Blay, seeking the union with the Valencian filmmaker Artur Moreno.
Unprotected the building from a management that would avoid any artistic deterioration and loss of its monumentality, the new mayor of the city José María de Porcioles entered the scene in 1957, who, seeing the possibilities of giving Barcelona the architectural prestige it deserves, authorized the demolition of the building.
The Compañía Española de Capitalización Europa S.A. was in charge of this, which, in its place, built a grotesque building, the work of the architect specialized in hospital architecture Leopoldo Gil Nebot.
Finally, in 2009, the owners of the property decided to convert the building into a luxury apartment complex, hiring the Japanese architect Toyo Ito, who made an interior in accordance with the interior needs and giving the façade an avant-garde line. with wavy shapes.
