On La Rambla, between the streets of Pintor Fortuny and Xuclà, stands the palace a shipping dynasty built over a demolished convent — headquarters of a Philippine tobacco company, then of a colonial bank, and today a hotel that wears the date 1898.
At a glance
The Tabacs de Filipines building stands on La Rambla at the corners of Pintor Fortuny and Xuclà streets, and is catalogued as a bé cultural d’interès local — a listed building of local cultural interest. Commissioned by the López family and designed in 1880 by the architect Josep Oriol Mestres, it was conceived as a grand residence and adapted during construction to house the offices of the Compañía General de Tabacos de Filipinas; the Banco Hispano Colonial later had its seat here. Today it is occupied by the Hotel 1898.
Key facts
- Where: La Rambla, at the streets of Pintor Fortuny and Xuclà, Barcelona
- Origin: plot of the former Jesuit convent, whose demolition began in November 1874
- Bought: 13 December 1879 by Claudio López y López, brother of the first Marquess of Comillas — a parcel of 1,316 m² plus the property at Xuclà 8-8 bis
- Architect: Josep Oriol Mestres, project of 1880
- Occupants: Compañía General de Tabacos de Filipinas; later the Banco Hispano Colonial
- Protection: bé cultural d’interès local
- Today: Hotel 1898
History
The site’s story compresses a century of Barcelona: a Jesuit convent, later used by the diocesan seminary, demolished from 1874; a parcel bought in 1879 by the López family, the shipping dynasty of the Marquesses of Comillas; and a residence-turned-headquarters designed by Josep Oriol Mestres in 1880 and modified while it was being built to take the offices of the family’s tobacco company in the Philippines. The building’s later occupant, the Banco Hispano Colonial, belonged to the same financial world. The hotel that occupies it today takes its name from 1898 — the year Spain’s colonial empire, on which that world was built, came to its end.
Sources
- Edifici Tabacs de Filipines — Viquipèdia (CA), read 26 August 2026
- Hotel 1898 — official site
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