1929. It is a date that, at first glance, could go unnoticed in Barcelona's recent history. It is not the year of a war, a great victory, or a political rupture. And yet, it is one of those essential years for understanding the city as it is today. The International Exhibition held in Montjuïc was the grand showcase of the Barcelona of a century ago, projecting the city onto the world stage and driving a transformation that was not limited to the area surrounding the mountain. The transformation was also taking place elsewhere in the city, especially in the Eixample, where the new bourgeoisie was reshaping the urban landscape and turning Passeig de Gràcia into the great showcase of a modern, bourgeois and cosmopolitan Barcelona.
A century later, the city will once again face a decisive moment in its transformation in 2029. The centenary of the International Exhibition is setting that year as a key target for completing some of the major urban projects already underway, from the renovation of the Fira de Montjuïc and the ambitious expansion of the MNAC to the reform of such central spaces as La Boqueria. But the influence of 1929 is not limited to projects due to be completed in 2029: it can also be seen in initiatives that, at first glance, might seem unrelated to the centenary, such as Hotel Club 29, the five-star hotel with which the Hidden Hotels makes its debut in Barcelona this September.
The connection is right there in its name. Hotel Club 29 refers, on the one hand, to the number 29 address on Passeig de Gràcia and, on the other, to the year that serves as inspiration for the entire project. Hidden Hotels has built its concept around 1929, seeking to evoke the atmosphere of the cosmopolitan Barcelona of the late 1920s.
The arrival of Hidden Hotels, however, does not mean opening a hotel from scratch. The company takes over a historic building constructed between 1880 and 1890, with a heritage-protected façade, which has been used as a hotel for years, first operated by Hotusa and, until 2025, by Sonder. After Sonder's bankruptcy in 2025, the property changes hands again a year later to become Hotel Club 29, a new five-star hotel with 65 rooms.
Sleeping within the history of Barcelona
The project is thus inspired by the aesthetics of the late 1920s and the world of the bourgeoisie that helped shape the character of Passeig de Gràcia at the time. A Barcelona of grand residences, carefully designed interiors and a new design culture, where architecture and interior design became expressions of social status.
Without understanding the taste that built that bourgeoisie, it is difficult to understand today the interiors and the design concept that Jean Porsche has developed for the renovation of the building, which now reopens under the umbrella of Hidden Hotels. The proposal recovers some of the codes of those stately homes —noble materials, decorative pieces, textures, and details— but reinterpreting them from a contemporary perspective.
But without this context, the building itself cannot be understood either. It was designed in the late 19th century as a residence for the bourgeoisie, although its authorship is not attributed to any of the great names in architecture who made Passeig de Gràcia one of the great showcases of modernism. A few meters from the hotel is the well-known 'block of discord', where Casa Amatller, by Puig i Cadafalch, Casa Lleó Morera, by Domènech i Montaner, and Casa Batlló, by Antoni Gaudí, engaged in a kind of competition to make their facades the most unique on the promenade.
This decorative language is also transferred to the 65 rooms, conceived from an idea of contemporary luxury and presented as a journey through time through materials, textures, and details that recover the taste of another era. There are rooms with views of Passeig de Gràcia and others facing the interior courtyard, in addition to more unique categories, such as the Singular Galería, which inside the room contains a small glass gallery above the building's old canopy, one of the most recognizable architectural elements of the promenade.
At the highest part of the six-story building are the suites, with more spacious areas that include living rooms, dining rooms, and private terraces. Rates start from 1,200 euros per night and reach their maximum in the Royal Suite, which is 155 square meters, has two bedrooms and its own terrace of more than 25 square meters, resulting from combining the Presidential Suite with the Premium Terrace.
But this experience, built room by room, also extends to the table. Hotel Club 29 will feature a gastronomic restaurant and L’Orangerie, a bright gallery connected to the terrace, in addition to a signature cocktail bar. The offering will be completed, as expected, with spaces for meetings and private events, as well as a wellness area with a gym and treatment room.
An address with many past lives
If Hotel Club 29 proposes a journey through Barcelona of another era, its own history also deserves a stop: that of a building that has changed lives several times before reaching this new stage with Hidden Hotels. Designed as a residence for the bourgeoisie, the property later went through different uses until it became a hotel. The property is currently owned by the real estate group Alting, a company that acquired numbers 29 and 31 in 1998 from the French financial entity Pallas-Stern. After a comprehensive renovation, the property became a prominent piece of the avenue's real estate market, with commercial spaces on its lower floors now occupied by firms such as Mango and Primor, and the upper ones dedicated to hotel use.
It was in 2004 when Alting signed the first hotel contract with Hotusa —the tourism group born in Barcelona in 1977 that by then had already begun to gain weight in the operation of urban hotels, and which today has Eurostars Hotels as one of its main brands—. Later, in 2022, Alting decided to lease it to Sonder, a Canadian company specializing in boutique hotels. A commitment that was reinforced by the agreement this company reached with Marriott to integrate into its booking platform and operate under its brand.
This alliance had, however, an abrupt end: in November 2025, Marriott broke the agreement with Sonder and the company ended up closing its operations. The decision left hundreds of guests without accommodation and forced those who were still in their hotels to leave their rooms precipitously. Just a few months after that abrupt outcome, the building on Passeig de Gràcia changes course again. It now does so as Hotel Club 29 and under the umbrella of Hidden Hotels, a hotel group born in the Balearic Islands in 2013 that lands for the first time in Barcelona.
Behind this group is the couple formed by Carmen Cordón and Ignacio Jiménez, husband and wife and founding partners, with very different professional careers. Cordón comes from a family linked for decades to the healthcare sector as promoters of Previasa, an insurance company that would eventually give rise to the Quirón Hospital Group. After the sale of the family's stake in the group, Cordón decided to orient her career towards the hotel sector and, in 2013, founded Hidden Hotels together with Jiménez, who had a long career in the hotel sector.
Since then, the company has made the recovery of historic buildings one of its main hallmarks, turning the past of each establishment into an essential part of the hotel experience. Its portfolio already extends through Madrid, Mallorca, Granada and Seville, with establishments such as Gran Hotel Inglés and Seda Club Hotel, both located in historic buildings recovered by the company. To this trajectory is now added Barcelona and a new project in Lisbon, a five-star hotel that will take the company beyond Spain for the first time.
The setting for landing in the Catalan capital could not be more significant: Hotel Club 29 thus joins an emblematic Passeig de Gràcia that for years has also been one of the great stages of luxury hotels in Barcelona. Majestic, Mandarin Oriental, Monument, Sir Victor or, more recently, BLESS Barcelona —one of the latest openings that El Radar has explored— have contributed to consolidating Passeig de Gràcia and its surroundings as one of the great hubs of high-end hospitality in the city. An axis that, moreover, promises to continue concentrating openings and novelties that El Radar will continue to follow closely.