Mandarin Oriental Barcelona

Mandarin Oriental Barcelona

The Passeig de Gràcia is Barcelona's answer to the great European boulevards, a wide, tree-lined promenade running north through the Eixample that the city's 19th-century bourgeoisie chose as their address of choice at precisely the moment when the Modernista movement was producing the most extraordinary domestic architecture in Europe. The results are still visible in an almost uninterrupted sequence along the boulevard: Gaudí's Casa Batlló and Casa Milà, Puig i Cadafalch's Casa Amatller, Domènech i Montaner's Casa Lleó Morera, all within a few hundred metres of each other, a concentration of architectural ambition so dense that a single block between Carrer d'Aragó and Carrer del Consell de Cent is known simply as the Manzana de la Discordia, the block of discord, on the theory that three architects of such different visions competing on the same street could only have been rivalry made stone. The Passeig is also Barcelona's most prestigious shopping and dining address, its pavement wide enough that the evening passeig still happens here in the way it was designed to, the terrace cafés full and the shopfronts lit and the city at its most self-consciously elegant. The Mandarin Oriental Barcelona occupies number 38-40 on the Passeig de Gràcia, directly opposite Casa Batlló. The building is the former headquarters of the Banco Hispano-Americano, a mid-century granite-façaded structure designed in 1955 that was converted to a hotel in 2009 by Barcelona architects Carlos Ferrater and Joan Trias de Bes of OAB, with interiors by Patricia Urquiola. Urquiola is among the most significant designers working in Spain today, and this is among her most personal hotel commissions: a floating illuminated ramp crosses the central atrium at the entrance, leading to a mezzanine reception above what was once the banking trading floor, now the all-day restaurant Blanc. Three-dimensional textured walls give depth to the public spaces throughout. The former vault structure became the Banker's Bar, its ceiling still lined with original deposit boxes, one of the more characterful hotel bars in the city. The 120 rooms and suites, all individually designed by Urquiola, look either over the Passeig de Gràcia or over the Mimosa Garden, a 650-square metre interior courtyard garden of mimosas, trees and shrubs designed with landscape architect Bet Figueras, one of the hotel's least expected pleasures. The spa has both an indoor pool and a rooftop pool with views over the Eixample. The gastronomic programme is among the strongest of any hotel in Spain. Moments, the hotel's two-Michelin-star restaurant, is helmed by Carme Ruscalleda alongside her son Raül Balam. Ruscalleda is one of the most decorated chefs in Catalan history, her restaurants collectively holding seven Michelin stars at their peak, and Moments serves a version of her haute Catalan cuisine that treats the region's ingredients and culinary traditions as serious artistic material. The Terrat rooftop combines cocktails and Peruvian-influenced dishes with the best view from the hotel. The guests are those for whom the Passeig de Gràcia is the correct address without further justification, international in composition, well-travelled, and drawn to the combination of a genuinely significant design commission, a kitchen that takes Catalan cuisine as seriously as the city deserves, and a location that puts Casa Batlló directly outside the window. It is the grand luxury Barcelona address. The short version: A 120-room Mandarin Oriental in the former Banco Hispano-Americano headquarters on the Passeig de Gràcia, directly opposite Casa Batlló. Interiors by Patricia Urquiola throughout, including the former trading floor now the all-day Blanc restaurant and the Banker's Bar in the original vault. Two-Michelin-star Moments restaurant under Carme Ruscalleda and Raül Balam, a 650-square metre Mimosa Garden courtyard, rooftop and indoor pools, and a spa. The grand luxury address on Barcelona's most famous boulevard.