Palau Finestres

Palau Finestres stands on Carrer Montcada in Barcelona as a Catalan Gothic noble house with origins in the fourteenth century. Older architectural elements and a former Roman necropolis beneath the site connect the building to a much earlier past. Its stone façade rises between party walls, with a semicircular arched portal, wrought-iron balconies, and a square tower crowned by a distinctive trifora window.

The property first appears in written records in 1291, when Martí de Montcada i de Banyeres sold it to Berenguer de Finestres. Families including the Finestres, Marimon, Reguer, Cànoves, Comalada, Riba, Aparici, Dalmases, and Vidal-Ribas later shaped its history. Adolf Florensa restored the house between 1957 and 1958, rebuilding the main portal, reopening the sun gallery, and reconstructing two courtyard windows. Late twentieth-century work incorporated it into the Picasso Museum, preserving the main façade, central courtyard, and several ground-floor arches while adding new cultural spaces.

Inside, an open staircase crosses the courtyard beneath a sloping arch and retains its medieval stone railing. A coffered ceiling from the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century offers another vivid link with the house’s earliest surviving fabric.