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On Via Laietana, at number 42 the architect Sixto Yllescas designed in 1940 a front organised around a great arched portal two storeys high, which the city protects today.
At a glance
The building stands at Via Laietana 42, between Plaça de Ramon Berenguer el Gran and the Palau de la Música. The City of Barcelona’s heritage catalogue records it as the Casa Miguel Ubach, an office building designed by the architect Sixto Yllescas Mirosa, dated 1940, and protects it as a bé amb elements d’interès (level C). It is now the Hotel ILUNION Almirante.
Key facts
- Where: Via Laietana 42, Ciutat Vella, Barcelona
- Architect: Sixto Yllescas Mirosa
- Date: 1940; plans filed in the municipal archive in 1941
- Original use: offices
- Protection: bé amb elements d’interès, level C of the Barcelona heritage catalogue, record 1218
- Current use: Hotel ILUNION Almirante
- Coordinates: 41.386032, 2.176384 · open in Google Maps
History
The municipal catalogue records this building as a work of 1940 by the architect Sixto Yllescas Mirosa, with plans in the municipal archive dated 1941, built for administrative use. It names it after Miguel Ubach.
The catalogue already notes that the building is used as a hotel today, and asks for the original volume, the facades and the original interior ornament to be kept.
Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons label this address “Casa Marcel·lí Girona”, a name the catalogue gives to other buildings on the same stretch of the street. We follow the city’s catalogue.
What you see
The photograph looks up at the central part of the front from the pavement. The ground floor and mezzanine are faced in stone laid in horizontal bands, and in the middle a single great round arch rises through both storeys, with a carved keystone ornament; the number 42 is cut beside it. The hotel sign is fixed at the right.
Above the arch a continuous balcony with an iron railing runs across the first floor. Higher up, the balconies are grouped two by two on heavy carved brackets, except on the central axis, which is the composition the catalogue describes. The upper walls are in smooth stucco.
Practical information
- The building is a working hotel; the facade can be seen from Via Laietana at any time.
- Via Laietana carries heavy traffic; the opposite pavement gives the clearest view of the front.
Getting there
Jaume I metro station (line L4) is about four minutes’ walk down Via Laietana; Urquinaona (L1, L4) is about five minutes up the street.
Nearby
- Palau de la Música Catalana, about 200 m away.
- Barcelona Cathedral, about 250 m away across Via Laietana.
- Plaça del Rei and the Barcelona History Museum, about 220 m away.
- Casa Vilardell (Hotel Ohla), a 1926 building a little further up Via Laietana.
Sources
- Ajuntament de Barcelona, Catàleg de Patrimoni, record 1218 — Casa Miguel Ubach: architect, date, original use, level C and the description of the facade.
- Wikidata, Q130545113, and Wikimedia Commons: the building under the name “Casa Marcel·lí Girona (Via Laietana, 42)”, with protection status.
- Hotel ILUNION Almirante — current use.
- OpenStreetMap / Nominatim — position and address, returned as Hotel ILUNION Almirante, 42, Via Laietana, la Catedral, Barcelona.
- This page rests essentially on one primary source, the municipal heritage catalogue; we found no independent history of the building.
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