The Cafè Vienès is a symbol of Barcelona's cultural and artistic legacy. Currently, it is part of the Hotel Casa Fuster, located in the upper part of Passeig de Gràcia; a modernist, elegant, and historic building. It is on the ground floor where we find this corner that seems to have been suspended in time.
A fundamental detail to understand the history of this space is that the Cafè Vienès was not born as a hotel bar, but as an establishment with its own identity at street level. The Casa Fuster building was built in 1908 as a private residence, but the high maintenance costs forced its owners to abandon it in the 1920s. The space went through various businesses (such as a barbershop or the popular dance hall El Danubio Azul), until the Cafè Vienès was inaugurated in 1933.
For more than seven decades, it was an independent café and a cultural space where the famous post-war gatherings took place with Salvador Espriu as its greatest exponent. In 2004, the building was renovated to become the current five-star Gran Luxe Hotel Casa Fuster, which integrated the historic lounge on its ground floor to preserve its name, its architecture, and its bohemian spirit.
Currently, the pink marble columns, large windows, and undulating interiors welcome us to a spacious, cozy place that houses a more than interesting history: it was the meeting point for intellectuals, poets, and bohemians in the 20th century.
Thought, art, and cultural debate in the heart of Barcelona
When you enter the Cafè Vienès, you enter a space that holds secrets, stories, and encounters starring some of the most prominent names in 20th-century Barcelona. It is part of the building designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner and was inaugurated in 1933, three years before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. And it was precisely this conflict that positioned the space as a place of intellectual refuge and exchange of thought.
After the armed conflict, Franco's dictatorship was established, a period characterized by the lack of freedom of expression and the persecution of Catalan culture. In this context, the Cafè Vienès was a symbol of intellectual resistance: among its tables gathered writers, philosophers, and artists who met to debate and exchange points of view on society and the era. Painters, playwrights, editors, translators, and poets came to this space to talk about European avant-gardes, debate human existence, review manuscripts, and promote the creation of clandestine magazines.
In Barcelona, a moment of repression, silence, and persecution was being experienced; but the Cafè Vienès opened its doors to allow intellectuals of the time to regain their voice, participate in gatherings, and foster collective thought.
Salvador Espriu and his mark on Cafè Vienès
If there is one name that stands out in the history of Cafè Vienès, it is, without a doubt, that of Salvador Espriu. The renowned poet and playwright turned this space almost into his office. He was one of the most regular literati at the café, not only to participate in gatherings but also to correct his works or read the press.
We are facing one of the essential authors of 20th-century Catalan and universal literature. From his pen came some great titles such as La pell de brau (1960), Ariadna al laberint grotesc (1935), or Primera història d'Esther (edited in 1948), monumental works that made him a very recognized personality. His style is characterized by presenting complex writing where metaphor and clean vocabulary were used to create a dehumanized truth.
In his prose, the grotesque tone is mixed with the absurd, the satirical, and the elegiac to explain the historical and cultural moment the country was experiencing. Espriu's literature is strongly marked by the gap of the Civil War, and in fact, he himself often announced that "he had died in 1938," a moment when the war was almost at its end, Catalan culture was persecuted, and his great friend Bartomeu Rosselló-Pòrcel, a Mallorcan poet, died.
The pessimistic and devastating sentiment of the post-war period led Espriu to write Primera història d'Esther, a piece conceived as a manifesto of resistance. In this work, the author has a clear objective: to rescue some words from oblivion and, taking advantage of this milestone, to sneak in some mockery of the Francoist censorship of the time.
Espriu associated with other great names in the literature of the time, such as Llorenç Villalonga (author of the grotesque Mort de Dama and who influenced Espriu's tone) or Marià Villangómez. In the sofas of the Cafè Vienès, the literati exchanged ideas, reflections and thoughts, along with other great personalities like Joan Vinyoli, critics like Joaquim Molas and editors and young university students.
Espriu's footprint in this space of the Hotel Casa Fuster was such that, with the arrival of democracy, the Barcelona City Council named the gardens in front of it Jardins de Salvador Espriu.
From post-war literature to jazz
In 2004, the building on Passeig de Gràcia became the Hotel Casa Fuster and the Cafè Vienès was integrated into the hotel establishment. Far from losing its cultural identity and artistic commitment, the venue expanded its commitment to culture: the space that once hosted the poets of the 20th century began to host contemporary creators.
This is the case of the New York filmmaker Woody Allen who, while filming his movie Vicky, Cristina, Barcelona in Barcelona, improvised a traditional jazz concert in the lounges, thus recalling the artistic and bohemian legacy of the space.
Today, the Cafè Vienès continues to be a meeting point for artists, literati and journalists who, many times, choose its lounges to interview great personalities. But on Thursdays, as evening falls, the space regains its essence and becomes a Jazz Club with small-format, intimate and close-up concerts, reminiscent of jazz clubs in Europe or the United States.
No matter how many years pass, the Cafè Vienès remains what it always was: the home of thought and art in the heart of Barcelona.