EL CONSULADO ESTADOUNIDENSE DE BARCELONA

WEBSITE: http://barcelonamemory.com/ INSTAGRAM:   / barcelonamemory   FACEBOOK:   / barcelonamemory   CONTACT: [email protected] TIP FOR DONATIONS: https://es.tipeee.com/barcelona-memory At the beginning of the 19th century, the sounds of the textile industry could already be heard in Igualada. There, a certain Ramon Godó i Llucià (1801-1885) co-founded the Igualada Fabric Company (1842) with 12 others, the first factory in the city to use a steam engine. And so, among balls of yarn and cotton, began an industrial saga that would eventually amass enough money to buy mansions, newspapers, and even royal patronage. Among the patriarch's children, Charles and Bartholomew stood out. The latter was married three times. His third wife, Gloria de Eguía y Muruaga, bore him a son, Bertomeu, and two daughters, Gloria and Mercedes, known in the elite circles as "the Godó girls." They remained spinsters and owners of the mansion where the American flag now flies. His father, Bartolomé Godó, died on January 22, 1894, leaving Mercedes orphaned at 16, Glòria at 13, and Bartolo at 8. He died at the age of 15 (1901), thus closing the direct male line of that branch of the clan. And since evil never comes alone, his mother, Glòria Eguía, also died in February 1908. The girls, now fully grown women of 30 and 27, were left alone... or almost. They had their aunt Florinda, sister of the late Bartomeu Sr., and with her they formed a small family unit. In 1921, they collaborated with the Women's Institute of Culture and Popular Library, an institution promoted by Francesca Bonnemaison. The idea was to provide access to books, courses, and training for women without resources. Glòria, the youngest, founded Nazareth Hospital in 1920, a center where you didn't need your pedigree to be admitted. If something hurt, it was cured. Period. Mercedes, the eldest, founded the Ave María School in the same building, also free of charge, so that the children of women in vulnerable situations would have more than just a corner on the street: a place to study and fill their stomachs. Before Bonanova was filled with elite schools, private clinics, and villas with butlers, those were fields until 1865, when the Barcelona Provincial Council got serious and decided to build a road connecting Cornellà de Llobregat with Fogars de Tordera, passing through Granollers and Sant Celoni. When they finally finished developing that stretch of the brand-new road, they named it Paseo de la Reina Elisenda de Montcada, in reference to the third wife of King James II, who founded the Pedralbes Monastery back in the 14th century. Mercedes and Glòria decided to build a mansion here and didn't hesitate for a second: they chose Enric Sagnier, an architectural institution and a family friend for decades. The relationship went back a long way. In 1915, the sisters had a small temple built in the garden, one of those that look like something out of an Italian opera. On the porch, they commissioned frescoes by Darius Vilàs, a lover of the paintings of Piero della Francesca and Fra Angelico. Their neighbors were the Pons Arolas, whose mansion is currently the Eulalia Technical Institute, and the multimillionaires from the Indies, Josep María Serra and Dorotea Chopitea, another churchgoer whose summer home is now the Saint Georges School. In 1936, with the country on the brink of disaster, Mercedes and Glòria Godó fled through the back door of the mansion, disguised as maids. They went into exile in Italy and lived in the Grand Hotel, now the St. Regis Rome. There they took refuge with the rest of the Godó clan, waiting for the fire to subside. Meanwhile, the mansion partially burned. After the fire, the building was reused as a school. When the war ended, Mercedes and Glòria returned to Barcelona. But what they found was their residence almost destroyed. They decided to occupy only a part of the house, the one that was habitable without risk of it collapsing. Here they lived surrounded by memories with their staff. Glòria died at the age of 78, and Mercedes, the eldest, died some time later. In their will, and true to their charitable calling, the Godó sisters bequeathed the house to the Congregation of Nuns of Jesus and Mary. Over time, they sold the mansion to the Red Cross to house its headquarters. Later, the Red Cross transferred ownership to the United States Consulate. In turn, the Red Cross resold the mansion to the American Consulate for 1 billion pesetas. Yes, ten times more. THE FULL TEXT AND PHOTOS ARE ON OUR WEBSITE: https://barcelonamemory.com/el-consul...