In celebration of Barcelona’s designation as the UNESCO–UIA World Capital of Architecture 2026, the Grand Hotel Central announces the launch of 100 Years of Design, an exclusive cultural experience developed in partnership with Barcelona Design Tours. Timed to coincide with Antoni Gaudí’s centenary, the hotel building’s 100th year, and the Sagrada Família’s milestone completion of the Tower of Jesus Christ, the tour offers guests rare insight into Noucentisme – the architectural movement that shaped Barcelona after Modernisme.
While Gaudí’s icons take centre stage in global celebrations, 100 Years of Design reveals a lesser-known story: how Noucentisme redefined the Catalan capital through clarity, balance, and a more rational urban vision. Nowhere is this shift more visible than on Via Laietana with its showcase of Noucentisme buildings, including Grand Hotel Central, one of the earliest and finest examples of the style. This new experience takes guests on a private journey into the origins, principles, and legacy of Noucentisme – exploring the people, building, street, and movement that quietly shaped modern Barcelona.
Grand Hotel Central’s landmark building was designed in 1926 by architect Adolf Florensa for influential politician and patron of the arts Francesc Cambó. Cambó played a pivotal role in the creation of Via Laietana, which connected wealthy families of the Eixample neighbourhood directly to their businesses in the city port. Notably, he lived in the building’s penthouse, reversing bourgeois convention and made possible by Barcelona’s first lift. The tour begins with exclusive access to his former home, and a private guide leads guests through original private rooms and gardens, with city views and landscaping by Jean Claude Nicolas Forestier, whose work on Montjuïc Park can be admired from the rooftop.
Stepping outside, guests view the hotel in dialogue with the Noucentist architecture of Via Laietana. The street is a showcase of the movement’s most influential architects and ideals, and guests will visit landmarks by Antonio Sagnier, Josep Domènech i Mansana, Josep Puig i Cadafalch, and the hotel’s architect, Adolf Florensa, which define the street’s refined proportions and civic elegance.
The tour culminates inside the magnificent Edifici Correus (1926, by architects Josep Goday Casals and Jaume Torres Grau), celebrated for extraordinary artworks built into the architecture and considered one of the greatest public Noucentist buildings of all time.
100 Years of Design starts from €850 including two nights’ accommodation, daily breakfast and private Noucenstisme design tour. Based on two sharing.
For more information or to book, visit www.grandhotelcentral.com.
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