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The history of the now-defunct Catalonia Library had its beginnings in Plaza Cataluña 17, on the ground floor of the former Casa Segura (now the Bank of Spain building), next to the Baltà y Ribas photography house.
It was founded in 1924 by Antoni López i Llausàs. Manuel Borràs de Quadras and Josep Maria Cruzet, publishers and printers who had the idea of ??offering this space to those people who preferred not to encounter the bustle of tumultuous libraries.
Despite the initial acceptance of the store, the first problem the bookstore had came when the Casa Segura building was acquired by the electricity company La Canadiense to open its offices. Later, the civil war paralyzed this construction.
The acceptance of the bookstore made its owners look for another place in the area where they could open a new bookstore. They found it at Ronda San Pedro 3, where the La Ciudad de Mataró tailor shop was located, which had begun its liquidation due to closure.
After the consequent remodeling of the premises to adapt it to the bookstore with a surface area of ??900 m², it opened its doors in 1931. A year later, in 1932, it already achieved its first success by launching the first edition of the General Dictionary of the Catalan Language of Pompeo Fabra.
Although with the times of the Republic he did not have big problems, these began to come to him with the coup d’état of General Franco and with the period of the civil war.
With the end of the war and glimpsing a time of recovery, the recommendation came from the Government (mandatory) of the need to change the name and become La Casa del Libro (the Caralonia Bookstore disappeared forever).
The death of Franco on November 20, 1975 and the change in the mentality of the rulers, returned to him in 1976 the old name of Catalonia and Editorial Selecta.
The joy did not last long, since on the afternoon of Wednesday, August 22, 1979, a terrifying fire took away not only the premises, but all the books that were inside at that time, some by fire and others. others by water.
The desire for survival and the desire of its owners not to abandon the clientele of so many years, allowed them to set up a tent on Paseo de Gracia. Its owners were able to improvise this solution for their clients while the new premises were being rebuilt.
After an incomparable effort, Catalonia reopened three years later. But economic problems mean that, in 1998, the Bertelsmann group became a majority shareholder.
Again in July 2002, the company undergoes a change of direction with Miquel Colomer at the head of the Robafaves company, with a 99.6% shareholding. A company that, in January 2003, incorporated into the bookstores El Cau Ple de Lletres in Terrassa, La Gralla in Granollers and La Llar del Llibre in Sabadell.
The new company closes the bookstore for nine months to carry out a spectacular reform, which many of its customers did not like, since it lost its old seal with a modern construction.
The economic crisis, the difficulties of the sector and the change in customs forced the Catalonia Bookstore to close its doors in February 2013.
The performance of the Booksellers Guild, which met with the Minister of Culture, Ferran Mascarell, to “try to unblock the financial issue and try to activate the lines of credit” was useless.
The paradox of the place was that it stopped feeding people’s culture to become a fast food restaurant.
For the nostalgic I will tell you that, if you want, you can find another Catalonia Bookstore in the world, in Santiago de Chile. It was founded in 1996 by Drina Beovic, who from the beginning tried to collect the tradition of the mythical Barcelona bookstore in Plaza Cataluña.
Drina Beovic passed away in 2001. Her daughters Laura and Catalina took up their mother’s idea and illusion and relaunched their business. In 2015 they opened their second location, on the first floor of the Editorial Catalonia offices.
