Harry Potter fans, we got some good news for you: we found a little Hogwarts hidden in Barcelona! And it also keeps a really special treasure inside: a statue of liberty, which is located right in the entrance of this building. This is the place we are talking about: Biblioteca Arus. Ready to travel back in time?
Biblioteca Arús, 125 years of history
We wrote about Biblioteca Arús in our blog post about the statue of liberty in Barcelona and included also this place in the hidden gems in Barcelona article as well. But we still haven’t deveiled the mysteries it hides and neither reflected the atmosphere of this magic place through pictures.
It was founded in 1895 by Rossend Arús Arderiu, and this fact is key to understanding the story behind this apparently common library. Arús was a journalist, a playwright and a Catalan Mason. He was also a philanthropist and a freethinker. Knowing Arus’ background lets us understand in a deeper way why he decided to create a project with a clear aim from the beginning.
A place founded by the freemasonry with a clear aim: access to education of the peoples
Throughout his life, Arús got to reunite more than 4.000 books. So his will after his death was to create a public library for the people (specially the working class) to be educated. So after Arús died in 1891, in 1895 the first public library was inaugurated in Barcelona: Biblioteca Pública Arús.
Biblioteca Arús was founded as a means to provide education to the people of Barcelona. To make the illustration movement reach the whole society in order to regenerate it, and that included everyone’s free access to culture and education, men and women equally.
A statue of the liberty with a clear message: Alma Libertas
So if you have this information beforehand, some things make complete sense while exploring this place for the first time. For instance, when you meet the statue of liberty at the entrance, you get the real meaning of the two words written on the book Libertas is holding: Alma Libertas. Because access to education is essential to build a society based on freedom.
Been founded by the freemasonry… Why did it survive during the Civil War?
This is something that you might ask yourself: given the ideas when it was founded, how did it manage to survive those times? Here is what happened: the library closed one month before the Francoist troops entered the city, due to the librarian’s death, Josep Buixadé. Then the Board of Trustees decided that the best option was to keep it closed until better times. While Biblioteca Arús was closed, the caretaker was in charge of taking care of the books and not allowing anyone to enter the building without the City Council permission. So the library kept closed from 1939 to 1967. And it survived.
The freemasonry essence is symbolically still preserved: there are secret passageways
When exploring the many shelves in this library, pay attention to the details: there are two secret passageways. What apparently seems a shelf, it is actually a door which leads to the inside. It is thought that these secret passageways were created for hiding or leaving the building through these alternative exits. But there are no references whether this happened or not…
Biblioteca Arús today
Today Biblioteca Arús has become a research center specialised in freemasonry, labour movement, anarchism in the 19th century and beginning of 20th, with a focus also on the Sherlock Holmes universe. As of today Biblioteca Arús counts on more than 80.000 books, and they still keep receiving donations. And beyond the valuable content in terms of books, what makes this place really special is that it has managed to keep the atmosphere of the old times. Once you start going up the staircase, you feel like entering a different period in History. And we really loved that.
And specially for those who we referred to at the beginning of this article (Harry Potter fans, ourselves obviously included among them), here is another magic place that you can’t miss either: One of the best libraries in Barcelona, Dipòsit de les Aigües
Biblioteca Arus
Address: Passeig de Sant Joan, 26