After nearly four years of restoration work Gran Hotel La Florida opened its
doors on April 29th, 2003. The Hotel which has a total of 74 Rooms
sits atop Mount Tibidabo, 300 meters over the city and offers spectacular views
of Barcelona and out to the blue Mediterranean Sea beyond to one side and the
snow capped peaks of the Pyrenees and sacred Montserrat to the other. The
comfort and elegance of its interior decoration, attention to detail and
facilities such as L’Orangerie Restaurant combine with the beauty of its
exterior gardens and magical views to make a stay at La Florida an unforgettable
experience.
HistoryGran Hotel La Florida is part
of the collective memory of many people in Barcelona who witnessed its birth at
the hand of architect Ramón Raventós. The restoration project of La Florida
set out to create an emblematic Hotel for the city of Barcelona while at the
same time respecting the original façade of the building that has been declared
a historic landmark.
The Hotel Florida was first
inaugurated in 1925 and was the realization of one man’s dream, Dr. Andreu,
who wanted to build Barcelona’s best hotel in Barcelona’s best location.
The
splendour, however, was not to last long. Like so many other things in Spanish
life, the civil war took its toll on the Hotel when it was used as a military
hospital. Again mirroring Spanish society, from that point on the history of the
building is a long and arduous one. Over
the years the Hotel passed from hand to hand, with differing levels of success.
During the 1950’s Hotel La Florida
was the place of choice for Barcelona’s high society serving mainly as a
summer residence for wealthy Catalan families and was the unofficial hotel of
Barcelona’s football club. Over the years Ernest Hemingway, James Stewart,
George Sanders, Rod Hudson, Princess Fabiola and the Prince of Belgium all
stayed in the prestigious hotel, as did other more sinister characters such as
Himmler and his enormous entourage. Finally in 1979, La Florida succumbed to the
passage of time and was closed.
In the year 2001 the Hotel La Florida was rescued from abandonment. The project
to refurbish the building had three main objectives: recuperate to the greatest
degree possible the antique decorative and structural elements of the old hotel,
respect the natural environment in which the hotel is found and improve the
visual impact of the Hotel on mountain on which it sits. The spirit of
the old hotel and its Noucentista style was
respected to a maximum degree. The new project also used the natural vegetation
of the Collserola Park in the hotel’s gardens.
One
of the most unique aspects of the Gran Hotel La Florida is its perfect synthesis
of the traditional and the new, the work of artisans combined with new
technologies and materials. Within La Florida wrought iron and antique carpentry
blend easily with stainless steel and glass.