Palau de la Virreina
A baroque building welcomes you in Barcelona’s Rambla, past Carme street, and it will awaken your curiosity because its highly-decorated façade and the interior courtyard and staircases give a glimpse of wealth and power. Go inside Palau de la Virreina and maybe you will be surprised by some art exhibition organised there. (map) (website)The Palau de la Virreina was built by Josep Ausich in 1778 for the former Viceroy of Peru, Manuel Amat i Junyent. He wanted to show his wealth by building a very ostentatious residence in Barcelona. He chose a style between baroque and rococo, which was not quite common in the city. The Viceroy never occupied the building because he died before it was finished. It was, however, occupied by his widow, the Vicereine María Francisca Fivaller, after whom the palace was named in the course of time. It was bought by the City Council in 1944 and in the late 1980s it became the offices of the Municipal Culture Area. The building is a good example of the French influence on architects of the 18th century. The imposing classical façade, sumptuous and Baroque in style, combines perfectly with a French-style Rococo decoration that finds its best example in the vaulted dining room illustrated with allegorical paintings. The remaining rooms in the building still have their original decoration, in Imperial style. The ground floor, which was formerly occupied by the amanuenses who wrote letters for the illiterate, currently houses a bookshop and a citizen’s information office.
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