Plaça de la Veronica

On the corner of the street, there is a small square called Plaça de la Veronica. Veronica was the woman who, according to the Gospels, wiped Jesus’ face during the Way of the Cross. The cloth she used was changed forever. The narrow building is called the Borsi. It’s made of light-coloured stone, and features columns, banisters, and Greek statues. Built in the 1880s, the Borsi originally housed the Casino Mercantil, an association of bankers and businessmen that operated alongside the official stock exchange. They remained active until the Spanish Civil War. In 1940, the new Franco government refused to let them use the building again. Instead, it became home to the School of Fine Arts. In the 1960s, it evolved into the School of Applied Arts, whose name is engraved on the pediment. However, the school had to relocate in 2009 due to a partial roof collapse. Today, the former Borsi belongs to the city council, with plans to become a civic space and a municipal library. To its right stands a beautiful building known as the House of the Four Rivers. Its façade, restored in 2011, is covered in the city’s best preserved sgraffito. Sgraffito is a wall decoration that involves carving drawings into a thin layer of plaster. It was a popular and valued technique during the Renaissance and Art Nouveau period. The ground floor drawings represent the four arts: music, painting, sculpture, and architecture. On the second floor, the artwork references four major rivers, each symbolising a continent: the Danube, the Nile, the Ganges and the Rio de la Plata. The third floor is decorated with medallions. The building replaced three houses purchased in 1702. It was constructed at the end of the 18th century by architect Jaume Fabregas. Today, it houses a luxury apartment-hotel and a museum space displaying private collections and objects recovered during the renovations.