TIMELINE
Annexes of the Church of Betlem.
School founded by the Jesuit congregation.
King Carlos III allocates this space to the diocese of Barcelona through a royal charter issued in 1769, and the former Jesuit school becomes a seminary.
The diocese of Barcelona has possession of the facilities until the second half of the 19th century when the city’s Revolutionary Junta appropriates the building.
The Provincial government takes control of the majority of the facilitie, except the annexes located on Xuclà street, which are publicly auctioned.
The diocese reclaims the property by virtue of the 1860 concordat, which had declared the seminaries as church property exempt from confiscation. Two sovereign ordinances decree the return of the diocesan property.
Once ownership is recovered, the bishopric requests authorisation from the State to sell the property so they can move the seminary to the Eixample new area.
Josep Maria Galí buys most of the property, except the portion nearest the apse of the Church of Belén, which remains in the possession of the bishopric. Galí applies for a permit to demolish the old seminary and divide the property into individual plots.
The easternmost plot, the one closest to the Church of Betlem, is bought by the López y López family, the marquises of Comillas and owners of the Compañía Trasatlántica Española (CTE).
The López y López family attorney, José Encina, applies for a permit to build a house on the only undeveloped plot left, on Rambla dels Estudis. Architect Josep Oriol Mestres erects the building, which becomes the headquarters of the Compañía Trasatlántica Española (CTE).
The Satrústegui brothers, partners of the López family, sell the building to the Compañía General de Tabacos de Filipinas (General Tobacco Company of the Philippines), which uses it as its headquarters. Several months later the company rents the basement, ground and first floors to the Sociedad Anónima del Banco Hispano Colonial, a bank, for a period of twenty-five years.
Fire in the El Siglo department store that affects the volume of the building.
The building adopts its current appearance as a result of the fire, which results in a significant urban redevelopment of the surroundings.
The headquarters of Ferrocarril de Alcántara en Lorca move to the main floor.
Productos Electrolíticos renovates one of the mezzanine floors and moves its headquarters there.
Renovations to the main courtyard and replacement of the skylight designed by Josep Oriol Mestres with the current one.
Banco de Santander opens a branch on the ground floor. The architect responsible for the project is Miquel Punset.
The Compañía General de Tabacos de Filipinas sells the building for 3.5 billion pesetas to state-owned Tabacalera and signs a two-year rental agreement with a buy-back option during the same period.
The group Núñez i Navarro purchases the building from the Tabacalera 1.8 billion pesseta with a goal to turn it into a luxury hotel.
Restoration work begins on the historic building.
The four-star Hotel 1898 is inaugurated in September. It features 171 double guest rooms, including 6 suites.