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The primitive Enric Parellada i Pallàs house, built in 1917 on Avenida del General Arguelles (now Avenida Diagonal), between Aribau and Tuset, was one of the constructions carried out by the architect Enric Sagnier in Barcelona.
Enric Parellada i Pallàs was one of the founders of the Peninsular Telephone Company, the first telephone company created in Barcelona on May 28, 1894, thanks to the contribution of British capital and which served as the impetus for a group of Catalan investors who were behind the project.
The progression of the device at that time for the population meant that, once known, in less than three years, 12,000 primitive telephone devices were introduced into Spanish homes and companies in Spain.
Sagnier, more out of commitment to the character than out of the desire to carry out the construction, presented the project for the new mansion in 1915. As at that time there was no obligation to build large buildings, the mansion designed by Sagnier for the Parelladas, was in the style neoclassical and, like all those palaces built only for resident families, it consisted of a semi-basement, ground floor, main floor and an attic. As at that time there were no space problems, the back part had a garden that overlooked Moià street.
After the civil war, already in 1942, Enric Parellada, who observed the changes that would occur in the area, left the building, which was acquired by the German Government to move the headquarters of the German Institute of Culture, which until then was in the Generalissimo Franco Avenue with Muntaner.
Hitler’s government, an ally of the new Franco regime, saw the Enric Parellada house as a potentially more appropriate place to spread the culture and prosperity of the Third Reich regime.
The inauguration of the premises was announced by the management of the Institute of Culture, offering teaching services in its exclusive classrooms, library and offices.
The events of the Second World War and the subsequent outcome forced the closure of the German Institute headquarters in 1945.
At the end of that same year, the building was acquired by the British Institute, which was established to develop the new English courses and classes that would be taught in the city.
The British Council of Barcelona managed to move through the building for 33 years, offering a quality of services between courses and exhibitions that the people of Barcelona liked, but in life there is nothing eternal and, in 1968, it decided to start a new stage in another building of the Amigo Street, 83.
The old mansion was acquired by the Caixa de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad of Barcelona, ??which built a new building by the architect Xavier Busquets i Sindreu, in keeping with the new times, with a glass façade. It was inaugurated at the end of 1972.
The Caja de Ahorros y Monte de Piedad of Barcelona, ??known by the nickname Caja de los Marquises, due to the large number of nobles who were on its Board of Directors, was founded in 1844. Its first president was Dionisio Valdés. Its first director was the Baron de Maldà and its first secretary, Francisco Barret Druet. In 1990 it would merge with the Pension Fund for Old Age and Savings, becoming the current La Caixa.
