It was in 1856 when a group of horse racing enthusiasts founded the Círculo Ecuestre in Barcelona. In these 170 years since its foundation, the private club has become a meeting point, debate, and influence for the Barcelona business, institutional, and economic scene. Within the framework of this anniversary, the Círculo has highlighted its history and trajectory in a visit beyond Barcelona: Pope Leo XIV has received the club's board in a private audience.
The path to the Vatican began with a letter requesting an audience with the Pope sent by the president of the Círculo Ecuestre, Enrique Lacalle, as he himself explained after Monday's audience in the pontifical dependencies. The Círculo's delegation, with about thirty people, shared with the Pope the role the club has played in the city since it started 170 years ago, as a meeting point for Barcelona's civil, economic, cultural, and institutional society. All this, just days before Leo XIV arrives in the city for his visit on June 9 and 10, coinciding with the centenary of Gaudí's death and the culmination of the Sagrada Família's Jesus Tower.
Watercolors, stained glass, and ham
In a visit not without anecdotes ---including a fainting spell and a pontifical visit to the infirmary---, the club conveyed to the Pope "its vocation of service to Barcelona and its desire to continue being a space for dialogue, coexistence, and reflection at the service of society," Lacalle remarked. The Círculo's delegation not only delivered its message to the Pope; he presented him with a watercolor of the Círculo's small palace commissioned from Josep Moscardó.And not only that: also a reproduction of a stained-glass window from the Sagrada Familia, and something that Lacalle knew the Pope liked: ham."We have started the 170th anniversary with something very special. I have met many people, I have been with Mandela, with Clinton, with Blair, and no one has impressed me as much as the Pope," says Lacalle, who has defended that the audience represents a sample of the club's historical link with Barcelona and its civil society. "Celebrating 170 years of history means looking back with pride, recognizing the legacy of those who have made the Club great and, at the same time, reaffirming our commitment to the future."
This link with Barcelona's reality has been woven from the Círculo over the decades, first on Sant Pau street, then on La Rambla and in Plaza Catalunya, until reaching a sumptuous building that the club built on Paseo de Gràcia and which it opened exactly 100 years ago. After the Civil War and after the sale of the building, it definitively settled in what is its current headquarters, in the financial and commercial center of Barcelona —specifically, in the unique mansion on Balmes with Diagonal or, what is the same, Casa Pérez Samanillo.
Future outlook
The club, now with more than 2,400 members, interprets this 170th anniversary and the Pope's words during the reception as an invitation to "continue working with responsibility, keeping alive the founding spirit of the Club and reinforcing our role as a plural meeting point, open and committed to the social, economic, and cultural progress of our environment," added Lacalle, who has been at the head of the entity since 2023. Thus,"this anniversary is not only an institutional celebration, but also an opportunity to renew the values that have accompanied the Círculo Ecuestre since 1856."From this conviction, the club has traveled to the Vatican with a delegation led by Lacalle and made up of thirty people, including the vice presidents of the Governing Board Ignacio Marull, Antonio Gámiz, Luis Conde and Isabel Estany. The secretary, José Ignacio Garmendia, also traveled, along with twenty members of the Governing Board: Ramón Agenjo, Luis Badrinas, José María Cardellach, Jordi Casas, Carlos Durán, Álvaro Echevarría, Ricardo Fernández Deu, Jordi García Tabernero, Anna Gener, Tirso Gracia, Pere Guardiola, Sergio Martínez, Alberto Missé, Jordi Morral, Isabel Perea, Daniel Puig, Aurora Sanz, Luis Sans Mercé, Miguel Tarazón, Helena Torras and Carlos Tusquets. The club's general director, David Galán, was also present, as well as the president of the Senate of the Círculo Ecuestre, Antonio Gámiz; the secretary of the club's Senate, Enrique Salvia; and the president of the Youth Committee, Emilio Zegrí.
The 170 years that continue with a gala dinner
To continue commemorating this 170th anniversary, the club will celebrate a gala dinner. It will be in November —as was its foundation—, at an event at the Palau de Congressos de Catalunya. The event is planned as a recognition of the club's trajectory and the people who have contributed to positioning it as a reference institution, while also serving as a meeting point for members, representatives of companies and institutions, and members of civil society.Thus, the Círculo Ecuestre looks to the future, strengthened by a consolidated trajectory and its willingness to serve as a meeting point for dialogue and debate in Catalan society in a broad sense. So much so that in the club's halls, initiatives ranging from professional meetings to art fairs are intertwined, following the path that has marked the entity since its foundation: to be a meeting point for the most influential Barcelona.