If you have walked Gran Via street, near Plaça Espanya, at some point you might have noticed this huge apartment building in the picture above. It is called “Cal Drapaire” and it is one of the biggest apartment buildings in Barcelona. And as it usually happens with all things in this city, this building has also a story!
Cal Drapaire was built in 1925 by a rag-and-bone man
This building hides a really interesting story. It was built by Pau Fornt Vall, who arrived to Barcelona when he was 12 years old, in search of a better life. And he ended up being a successful businessman. But here is one of the most relevant facts: his first job was as a rag and bone man.
And here is the first question: how could a humble rag and bone man build such a majestic building, with the economic investment it required? It still remains a mystery, but there are some popular explanations which even give the story a more mystic or legendary base: Fornt found the money under a mattress, or even it is said that he found a gold mortar that had gone unnoticed because it was covered by some other material.
We probably never know how Pau Fornt did it, but the truth is that he managed to build one of the biggest buildings in the city.
One of the biggest apartment buildings in Barcelona
Cal Drapaire is located in Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes 280, and it has 240 apartments. The building was built following pretty modern construction criteria, which might remind you of some of the buildings built in the US during that period.
Cal Drapaire is located in Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes 280, and it is formed by 240 apartments, 11 floors and 6 interior stairs.
And a really important novelty in that time: elevators.
Beyond the innovation, they symbolised something else: now the first floors weren’t such a privilege (which were inhabited by the bourgeois mainly) and the highest floors usually for people from a lower social class. Because elevators had just entered the scene.
Also, the building was built following pretty modern construction criteria, which might remind you of some of the buildings built in the US during that period.
Why did Pau Fornt build Cal Drapaire?
As you can appreciate in the picture above, when Cal Drapaire was built, Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes looked way different than it looks today. It was more of an industrial area, so the building was created to host mainly the working class from the many textile factories that were placed in that area of Sants neighborhood.
Cal Drapaire or… “Edifici de la Concepció”
And here is a part that we specially like: the building is also called La Concepció, because Pau Fornt Valls dedicated this construction to his wife, Concepción Brunet. Cal Drapaire also had a sculpture of the Mare de Déu de la Concepció, to honour Fornt’s wife, but years later it was destroyed by the Republicans. However, the building is still known by Fornt’s wife’s name, l’Edifici de la Concepció.
And if you want to keep reading about other places with hide special stories, you can’t miss the story behind this particular square: Sant Felip Neri Square