The sixth chapter of Hotels with History and Hotel Stories, which we publish every 15 days in The New Barcelona Post, places us in the heart of the Gothic Quarter, directly opposite the Metropolitan Basilica Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia.
At number 7 of the avenue, a neoclassical building from 1951 has changed its name after 74 years: from the legendary Hotel Colón to the new Lamaro Hotel, a five-star hotel that recovers the founder's surname and starts a new life after an 8.5 million euro renovation.
A legendary anger
It all began, like the best family stories, with a monumental anger. In the late forties, Antonio Lamaro, a Milanese engineer and builder, arrived in Barcelona with his wife looking for accommodation. The Ritz, which was then the ultimate in hospitality, only had a room with a shared bathroom for them. She was indignant; he, with a strong Italian character that did not admit half measures, was indignant at the situation and uttered the phrase that would change everything: 'I will build my own hotel... and with a bathroom in every room!'. Legend or absolute truth, the family continues to tell it seventy-five years later, remembering that moment of anger as the germ of the Colón.
In post-war Barcelona, with barely a dozen decent hotels in all of Ciutat Vella, the idea of building a good hotel was not far-fetched. Lamaro found an empty plot in front of the Cathedral, a gap opened by the demolitions of the twenties and thirties to widen the avenue, and built his dream: 150 rooms, all with private bathrooms, which was still an almost revolutionary luxury and with an eye on the Eucharistic Congress of 1952, the first major international event the city organized after the Civil War.
El Colón quickly became one of the refuges for the elite who stopped in a still gray Barcelona, although it already had some shine.Through its corridors, beds, and balconies passed the American Ernest Hemingway, the Italian Sophia Loren, the Galician Camilo José Cela, and the Americans Tennessee Williams and Jane Fonda.From the long list of 20th-century luminaries, the most faithful guest was the CatalanJoan Miró.During the sixties and seventies, the painter and sculptor made it his Barcelona headquarters: he painted in the living rooms, went for walks through the Gothic Quarter, and returned to sleep with the bells of the Seu as his alarm clock. "Here beats the imperishable Barcelona," he once said. And he was right.Other illustrious names complete the album: the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre philosophizing on the terrace, the painter and choreographer Jacqueline Roque, Picasso's second wife, occupying a suite on the fourth floor courtesy of the current owners' grandmother. Later visits by the Japanese Arata Isozaki, the American Francis Ford Coppola, and the Valencian Santiago Calatrava are also recorded in the guestbook.
For decades, the second generation of the family cared for the hotel like a cherished treasure, almost untouched: flowered curtains, thick carpets, and an air of a slightly old-fashioned grand house. Time and competition were unforgiving. In the 2010s, there were family tensions and shareholder disputes; the third generation resisted the sale and, finally, the fourth, led by Pietro Allegri and Marta Correngia, great-nephews of the founder, bought back the hotel from the rest of the family, healed wounds, and embarked on the major renovation.
Leaving Colón Behind
The renovation works began in 2019. Covid forced them to stop longer than expected, but floor by floor they transformed the old Colón, which competition was leaving behind if it didn't change. The changes were already visible from the street: a serene and minimalist lobby, the new Catedral 1951 restaurant (a tribute to the opening year) with updated Catalan cuisine, and the l'Àtic rooftop, a highly coveted balcony in the heart of Barcelona, where tables next to the railing are sometimes the scene for Asian or American selfies and gin and tonics or wines from guests facing the towers of the Seu-cathedral.
The former 150 rooms are today 125 more spacious rooms in earth and blue tones.There are original wooden pieces saved and a definitive goodbye has been said to the characteristic curtain flowers that, more than classic, were already from very past times.The Barcelona interior design studio Espai 31 has achieved the great change without fanfare. The changes and refinement of the house are noticeable in the warmth of the service, in the details that make one feel at home (what hotels with personality aim for) and in the feeling that history is still there, although it no longer weighs.
The name change has not gone unnoticed. Passing in front of number 7, some Barcelonans who know the area well think "but this Lamaro... wasn't it the Colón?". And in other cases, the renaming has raised some eyebrows and claims. The Emblemàtics de Barcelona group even proposed calling it "Colón-Lamaro" so as not to lose the memory, although Pietro and Marta are clear: Lamaro Hotel, as it sounds, is a tribute to the great-grandfather and the starting signal for a new stage.
Although it is not direct history of the hotel, in some way it is also part of history: the same company that manages it has the nearby Regencia Colón under construction. It is at 13 Sagristans street and, in its case, it will go from three to five stars, in addition to planning a third hotel in the Gothic Quarter for 2026.
With an obviously different clientele than it had in the 50s, the Lamaro has found its niche in the Barcelona of silent luxury. In front of the Cathedral, where the bells continue to mark the rhythm of this part of the city, exactly as when Miró woke up to paint. The hotel is no longer the usual Colón, nor does it want to be... although it is still history of Barcelona.