The Four Cats

Yet another unique building that catches our eye! Els Quatre Gats — which you may have guessed means “The Four Cats” — was a famous cabaret that opened in 1897. Resembling a small medieval castle, this venue is the work of Pere Romeu. He worked with Rodolphe Salis at Le Chat Noir in Paris, and felt inspired to open an avant-garde and bohemian place in Barcelona. The name is a play on words, referring both to the Parisian cabaret and to a well-known Catalan expression. In Catalan, saying there are “four cats” somewhere implies that the place is nearly empty. The painter Ramon Casas invested in the project and funded the medieval-style furniture and the interior decoration. He also donated the now-famous painting of himself on a bicycle, alongside Pere Romeu. You’ll see a replica inside — the original is in the National Art Museum of Catalonia. The café of the Four Cats quickly became the meeting place for the leading artists of the Art Nouveau movement, thriving in Barcelona at the time. A group of young, up-and-coming artists also gathered here, including Pablo Picasso, who shared his first drawings here in the 1900s. Apparently, the first time Picasso tried to enter the Four Cats, he looked so shabby and broke that they refused to let him in. Other frequent guests of the café included: Antoni Gaudí, Uruguayan painter Joaquín Torres García, illustrator Ricard Opisso, and musician Isaac Albéniz. In the 1900s, you could see art exhibitions, attend poetry readings, or take part in literary competitions. Some nights, the cabaret featured shadow plays for adults — a form of entertainment that was highly popular in the cabarets of Montmartre, a famous neighbourhood in Paris. The silhouette puppets, once used behind a white screen, are now found at the National Art Museum of Catalonia. Closed in 1903, the place was later rebuilt and reopened under the same name in 1978. Today, it’s a café-restaurant where you can sit by the stained-glass windows and imagine chatting to the intellectuals of the day beneath the large poster drawn by Picasso. The venue displays numerous period photographs and engravings. Cinephiles may recognise this site from Woody Allen’s film Vicky Cristina Barcelona, starring Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, and Scarlett Johansson.