Hotel Torre Macaya
Hotel Torre Macaya is a neoclassical mansion in Barcelona, built in 1918 as Román Macaya Gibert’s summer residence. Its garden surrounds a swimming pool, palms, cypresses, an araucaria, and a grapefruit tree. The Macaya family also created Casa Macaya on Passeig de Sant Joan, linking both buildings to Barcelona’s architectural heritage.
The mansion later housed offices and the advertising agency Ogilvy, where Carlos Ruiz Zafón worked before becoming a full-time writer. During the Spanish Civil War, anarchist groups used it as a secret prison and torture centre called Torre del Terror. Zafón drew on the building for The Shadow of the Wind, where it appears as Torre Aldaya. Its conversion into a boutique hotel preserved the central wooden staircase mentioned in the novel, alongside Italian marble, fine woods, and views over the garden or city. El Nido del Mirlo adds a restaurant with large windows and a garden terrace open to the public.
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