Carrer de Montcada, 20Palau Dalmases is a 17th Century Palace built in the heart of Barcelona, in its popular and quaint area El Born.
The Palau Dalmases is located between Calle Montcada, 20, and Calle Banys Vells, 13, in the Ciutat Vella district of Barcelona, where the names of the streets take us back to the Middle Ages.
The history of the origins of this Palace dates back to the Middle Ages (17th century), as recorded in the documentation of some urban planning works on Montcada Street.
According to historians, the first texts referring to the house appeared in the 14th century. Therefore, we have to imagine a house in the Gothic style, which belonged to the ecclesiastical cathedral hierarchy. The names of its two inhabitants of those times are also known: Bernat Sapila and Guerau Sespluga.
Owned by the medieval church, it passed during the Modern Age to great families of Barcelona, such as the Boixadors and the Grimau, before it was reformed and grew.
These palaces and large centers were the residences of the nobles of Barcelona, located on Montcada Street, Merced street, and Paseo del Born, among others.
Montcada Street is the urban space of the renovated Palaces.
The house was severely damaged by bombings during the 1697 siege of Barcelona and was subsequently abandoned. Finally, in 1698, the owners sold it in a dilapidated state to Pau Dalmases Castells (from whom it receives the name), who built the house again, with smooth stone walls and an important sculptural decoration. His son, the intellectual Pau Ignasi Dalmases, was one of the most interesting personalities in Barcelona.
The current appearance corresponds to the 17th-18th centuries, in a Baroque style, although the house has been renovated and expanded over the centuries.
The mythological scenes depicted on the stair rail correspond to two iconographic themes: Neptune's Chariot and the Rape of Europa. Neptune's Chariot could symbolize maritime trade in the Barcelona of the Habsburgs. The Rape of Europe to the Bourbon monarchy, Felipe V as Jupiter, who with the imposition of his force wants to dominate all the kingdoms of Spain.