| “When my mother was a girl, she attended a
wedding at the Palacio Vedruna which was the family home of the bride. It
was a block away from Paseo de Gracia in a neighborhood with many 19th
palaces. But my mother thought the Palacio Vedruna was the most beautiful
she had ever seen. She often talked to us about that wedding, how splendid
it was, like something out of the age of nobility.
“I’ve lived in Barcelona for 29 years now, and to me,
the area around Paseo de Gracia is the best place in Barcelona. You can
walk to the Ramblas, the Plaza Catalunya, Gaudi’s Church of the Sagrada
Familia, or just go up and down the streets with all the fashionable shops
and palaces. I often used to walk around the neighborhood, and whenever
I’d pass the Palacio Vedruna, I’d stop, look up, and think about my
mother being at a wedding here long ago.”
We are talking to the engaging Victoria Amorós in the
strikingly modern lobb of the Hotel Claris, a five-star hotel that opened
in 1992 in time for the Barcelona Olympics. Victoria is smiling as she
concludes her story: “Today I am the guest-relations manager here at the
Hotel Claris. And I think it is an amazing coincidence because this hotel
was once the Palacio Vedruna.”
It is a re-imagined Palacio Vedruna to be sure. All that
remains of the palace is the elegant sandstone façade that wraps around
the corner where Valencia and Pau Claris Streets meet. A glass and steel
addition expands the dimensions of the property upwards to seven stories
and outwards on either side. Nevertheless, it seems to recede out of sight
as the foreground of the beautiful 19th century palace topped with the
Vedruna family’s historic coat of arms captures the eye and provides the
lasting impression.
Your taxi pulls up before the neo-classic structure, and
before you have a chance to settle with the driver, people have come out
to welcome you. They take your bags, usher you inside, swiftly dispense
with the registration process, and in a matter of minutes, escort you to
your room. “That is the uniqueness of the Claris,” Victoria says. “The
most important thing to us is the way guests are treated. Everything is
geared to making people comfortable. From the doorman to room service to
housekeeping, everyone will give you service with a smile.”
The Claris is unique is other ways as well – in its
stunning design, a seamless blend of past and future; in its
minimalist/glamorous rooftop expanse that overlooks the city with fitness
center, cacti plantings, swimming pool, and two restaurants (with its
Brazilian DJ, one of them has become a Barcelona hot spot); in its
excellent gastronomic restaurant, anchored in Catalan cuisine. But most of
all, what sets the Claris apart is its dual identity as a hotel and as a
museum of fine art and antiquities. Many deluxe hotels incorporate art
into their decorating schemes, but the treasures of the Claris are so
extensive, varied, and accessible, and their setting is so original, that
even the briefest of stays becomes an experience not easily forgotten.
A courtyard at the center of a building is a typical
Spanish conception, but at the Claris, it is a singular execution -- an
atrium that rises seven stories to a glassed ceiling faced with glass
panes and steel frames, a solid interior wall with conventional windows,
another wall of silver slats with porthole-shaped windows, and an exposed
elevator shaft through which the windowed elevator rides, turning every
trip up or down into a wondrous excursion. Water continuously cascades
down the glass walls into a pebbled pond that supports a tree with leaves
shaped like those of birches, only they are made of bright red fabric. You
sit on a modular leather sofa, rest your drink on a little circular table
of glass and steel, look around at the marble surfaces, the concrete
pillars and mirrored panels, the Art-deco inspired swirling stairways with
glass and chrome banisters and, at the same time, take in the pair of
ancient Roman mosaics hanging on the wall, the pair of ancient Roman
statues positioned like bystanders. Lulled by the Zen-like sound of
falling water, you realize how seemingly incongruous elements have merged
into an ambience that is exciting yet serene.
The combining of the avant-garde and the antique is a
defining theme of the Claris. It translates into the comforts of modernity
alongside the privilege of living, if only for a short while, with
valuable works of art. Every one of the 124 rooms, which include two
suites, 20 junior suites, and 18 duplexes, is distinctive. Yet all share
bold color schemes, furnishings of Chesterfield sofas and Bauhaus-style
couches and chairs, floors and wall panels of gleaming rosewood, and the
latest plasma-style television sets. These co-exist with one-of-a-kind
Turkish kilims (once the property of Lord Cromwell), pieces of
distinguished period furniture, and valuable paintings, engravings, and
sculptures. Our junior suite was accessorized with a whimsical pair of
silver pedestals topped with globes the size of beach balls covered with
pieces of red and orange suede, a 17th century English secretary, an 1809
engraving of Napoleon viewing the tomb of Ozymandius, and set into a niche
but otherwise open to be touched as much as viewed, a wooden sculpture of
the Indian goddess Kali dated to some time between the 10th and 11th
centuries.
 |
 |
We had never seen quite anything like this. When we
conveyed our impression to José Luis Fernández, the otherwise gentle and
soft spoken general manger responded with the Spanish equivalent of “You
ain’t seen nothing yet!” He then escorted us to a large space on the first
floor above the lobby filled with an amazing array of treasures from
ancient Egypt. Ranging in size from miniature statues to
larger-than-life-sized busts, they represented dynasties dating as far
back as 1500 B.C.
“This is part of a much larger collection belonging to
Mr. Jordi Clos, the owner of the Claris,” Mr. Fernandez explained as we
stood, mouths agape, at the wealth before us. “He has been collecting art
for 25 years. But he is also a hotelier who founded the Derby Hotels
Collections. In addition to the Claris, there are five other Derby hotels
in Barcelona, two in Madrid, and one in London. He has filled all of them
with works of art from many different periods and of many different
styles. But ancient Egyptian art is Mr. Clos’ passion.”
A trained archaeologist who is well-versed in
Egyptology, Jordi Clos has assembled enough Egyptian antiquities to
display 900 of them in his Barcelona Egyptian Museum which is just down
the block from the Claris and around the corner from Paseo de Gracia. One
of the largest privately owned museums in Spain, its holdings represent a
virtual time-line of this civilization of lasting intrigue.
It is easy to become lost in the world of pharaonic
dynasties while viewing the collection at the Claris which makes entering
“East 47” through a door at the end of the loft-like exhibition space
likely to cause an attack of cognitive dissonance. Cross the threshold and
you step out of ancient Egypt into 20th century America and the bi-level,
ultra modern dining room and bar named for the Manhattan street where
Andrew Warhol’s studio was located. The pop artist’s lithographs,
particularly portraits of Marilyn Monroe repeated in various hues,
decorate the walls; furnishings and tableware are sleekly contemporary;
and the upbeat crowd is largely young and hip.
|
Jon San Millan, Maitre d’ and Sergio
Gurim, F&B Manager at East 47 |
Still if the décor and art of the Claris reflect an
international and pan-historic attitude, the cuisine of East 47 will
ground you in the hotel’s locale. For with a few exceptions like tuna
tataki, the menu is Catalonian; so is the chef. There are the classic
dishes like poached eggs with cauliflower and caviar, colorful salads of
marinated artichokes; braised chicken, pine nuts, tomatoes and dried fruit
oil; the excellent products of Costa Brava’s Mediterranean waters like sea
bream served with leeks fondant in a sauce of white asparagus and onions,
and grilled scallops with caviar, celery butter and cream. |
This northern
section of Spain that meets the border with France is noted for
extraordinary cuisine, and East 47 presents it at its best. One cannot go
wrong, not with the food, not with the wine, in our case, a fragrant
cabernet sauvignon from a Costa Brava vineyard.
|
Breakfast manager Gamal Zaki, “Jimy” |
Front desk team |
Such are the multiple delights of a stay at the Hotel
Claris. And then there is the staff, every one of whom seem delighted to
be working there, from the maitre d’ at East 47, to our waiter who is from
the Basque, to Gamal Zaki, known to all as Jimy, manager of the breakfast
dining room. He met Mr. Clos when he was working in a restaurant in his
native city Cairo. Befriended by the Clos family, he moved from Cairo to
Barcelona and the Claris Hotel.
And of course there is José Luis Fernández who told us
“I love this job. I don’t have an office in the hotel beyond a small space
with a computer. My office is everywhere.
| “I remember when Mr. Clos hired me as a bellman in
1988. At that time, he said to me, ‘In this company, if you are
responsible, if you like this job, you will be okay.’
“I went from bellman to reception, to night duty, to
desk manager, to general manager. One day I reminded him.
“‘Mr. Clos,’ I said, ‘the first time I spoke to you,
you told me if I work hard at the Claris, I can become its general
manager. Well, Mr. Clos, here I am.’
|
General Manager José Luis Fernández |
“He responded by giving me a big smile.”
Claris Hotel
Pau Claris, 150
08009 Barcelona, Spain
Phone: 34 93 487 62 62
Web:
http://www.derbyhotels.com
TRAVEL BYTES
Hotel Granados: Just a few blocks from the Claris, the
newest member of the Derby chain opened early in the spring of 2006. In
its former life, the Granados was a hospital and the bustling mood of late
19th century Barcelona has been retained in an Industrial Age aesthetic
which makes much use of materials like riveted iron and brick. But the
mood of early 21st century Barcelona is here as well in an Electronic Age
aesthetic that features stone and glass facades, minimalist interiors, a
sky-lit central courtyard surrounded by loft-like and split-level rooms
and suites of a neo modernist cast (some even have private swimming
pools), and a Japanese garden outside a Mediterranean/Japanese restaurant
that is a trip into tranquility. At the same time, it would not be a Derby
hotel without some significant pieces of art, in this case Hindu antiques.
Young in spirit, trendy, and exciting, it is rapidly becoming a place to
see and be seen.
Hotel Granados
Enrique Granados 83
Barcelona, 08008, Spain
Web:
http://www.derbyhotels.es/eng/granados_in.htm
Sergio Aranada Barcelona: On a corner midway between the
Claris and Granados, Sergio Aranda’s shop is a boutique museum of
hand-crafted jewelry. Necklaces, rings, bracelets, earrings and pendants
of unique design and precious and semi-precious materials designed by this
gifted Barcelona native are exquisite and well-priced.
Sergio Aranda Barcelona
c/València, 201
08007 Barcelona
Phone: 34 93 451 44 04
Web:
http://www.sergioaranda.com
Email: info@sergioaranda.com
Photographs by
Harvey Frommer
# # #
About the Authors:
Myrna Katz Frommer and Harvey Frommer are a wife and husband team who
successfully bridge the worlds of popular culture and traditional scholarship.
Co-authors of the critically acclaimed interactive oral histories It Happened in
the Catskills, It Happened in Brooklyn, Growing Up Jewish in America, It
Happened on Broadway, and It Happened in Manhattan, they teach what they
practice as professors at Dartmouth College.
They are also travel writers who specialize in luxury properties and fine
dining as well as cultural history and Jewish history and heritage in the
United States,
Europe, and the
Caribbean. (More
about these authors.)
You can contact the
Frommers at:
Email:
myrna.frommer@Dartmouth.EDU (myrna frommer)
Email:
harvey.frommer@dartmouth.edu
Web:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~frommer/travel.htm.
This Article is Copyright © 1995 - 2008 by Harvey and Myrna Frommer. All rights
reserved worldwide.
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