A house dedicated to fine living

Conscious of the privilege of living in Antiga Biblioteca Almirall, we feel responsible to preserve and share this cultural and historic heritage. For this reason, we open our doors to guests who will appreciate the experience of being in touch with the Catalan history.

A little bit of history

Then and now

A forward-thinking spirit

Valenti Almirall

The history of the building is linked to the life of Valenti Almirall (1841-1904), one of Catalonia's most important characters during the second half of the 19th century. In addition to be an author, a politician and a lawyer he was also an avid excursionist. His live is full of histories and anecdotes linked to this place and being here, it is easy to imagine the entrepreneurial and forward-thinking spirit of this man of the Renaixença.

Martha and Øyvin

The hosts

We are a Colombian-Norwegian family living in Barcelona since 1996. We discovered the old library in 1999 when searching for a property to develop a cultural project. We immediately fell in love with it. For the last 18 years, we have taken on the responsibility of renovating the building and its garden. Our four children have been raised between scaffolding, bricks and cement and we have been challenged to move from room to room as work progressed.

Øyvin and Martha, your hosts
The family at Machu Picchu during the world trip.

In 2011 we travelled around the world as a family project for 14 months. Filled with experiences, impressions and memories from our world trip, we have learnt to live on the move and with very light luggage. As vivid entrepreneurs, adventurists and partners in projects and in life, we want to continue dreaming, learning and growing and we do so in the house where we live, work and reflect on what goes on around us.

We look forwards to

Hosting You

The soul of this project is our family. Each one of the members contributes with their unique knowledge and skills. But we also partner up with other professionals that share our passion and vision.

Be our guests,

Martha Ruiz