The Hotel Internacional or Gran Hotel Internacional was one of the buildings that the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner constructed for the Universal Exposition of 1888 of Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain).
The hotel was a 5,000 square meter building that was built in record time of 53 days. It was conceived as a temporary facility to welcome visitors to the exhibition and was demolished once the contest was over.
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The Exhibition Hotel
The Universal Exhibition of 1888 was celebrated in the city of Barcelona between April 8 and December 9, 1888, receiving a total of 400,000 visitors from all over the world.
The forecast of visitors from outside Barcelona and the lack of accommodation of category in the city, represented a disadvantage for the importance of the event, the first of this level that was held in Spain. For this reason it was decided to build a hotel based on the principles of Swiss César Ritz, who conceived a type of accommodation different from the inn or hostel. A cozy place with enough amenities for the client to find theirself at home.
The hotel was built on land gained to the sea in the new Passeig de Colom, in front of the building of the General Captaincy. It had floor and four floors of height of 150 m by 35 m, occupying a lot of 5,000 m2. Its capacity was for 2,000 guests in 600 rooms and 30 apartments for large families.
The promoter of the winning work was Ricardo Valentí, but the promotion was transferred to Francesc Manuel Pau and was financed by the entity El Crédito Español.
The construction began in the middle of the month of December of 1887 and the 14 of February of 1888 finished the works of the building., although the interior finishes and decoration lasted until the end of March of 1888.
In the middle of January, it was decided to work at night, using eighteen large electric lights, and the personnel brigades were structured which in total were made up of 650 masons and laborers, 100 carpenters and 40 plasterers.
The official inauguration occurred on April 5, 1888 and opened to the public on 12 April.
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Demolition
The building had a great reception among the citizens of Barcelona and a good part of the intellectual sector, which considered it a work of art representative of the new architecture.
But its ephemeral character had carried out certain actions of difficult backwards. The location had been made in land temporarily ceded by the Port of Barcelona, that made a permanent stay not viable. In addition, the building had no foundation, as it was seated on a metal structure made expressly to provide stability, and finally, the materials used in the construction were intended for a limited duration. Although the duration of the construction was predetermined, a movement for defense of the building was organized, that already began its defense before being finished the construction.
At the end of the Exhibition, there were several tensions to change the situation of the demolition, involving the minister with an offer of sale of the building, arriving the discussion to the Spanish Courts in a very tense session in which the demolition order was confirmed.
The demolition began on May 1, 1889, just over a year after its inauguration.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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