By any yardstick, Barcelona is a city blessed with impeccable genes, and like a true urban supermodel, it has few, if any, bad angles. The latest folly in town to take advantage of this fact is the 60-room Yurbban Passage Hotel & Spa.
Two years in the making, the project was a complicated one that involved the incorporation of the extant Passatge de les Manufactures and renovation of a late 19th-century building in the city’s El Born, an ancient quarter that once heaved with merchants, artisans and workshops.
Against architectural firm BCA’s quiet intrusions and preservation of period details like the main staircase and façade rosettes, the interior designer Raquel Sogorb has fashioned an equally thoughtful space for the five-storey hotel. The rooms, especially, sport a handsome patina of paneled timber headboards, dark matt bathroom fittings and wire chairs.
The spa, meanwhile, clad in stone wall, vaulted ceiling and cast-iron pillar – and featuring vegan treatments – is a subterranean counterpoint to the rooftop pool and terrace with views of the cathedral and Santa Maria Del Mar.
And while gourmets will be thrilled to find the laureled chef Xavier Franco in the kitchen of D’Aprop serving up oysters with a chardonnay marinade, and a cold veal tataki with cabernet grapes and onions, it’s worth noting that the hotel’s gift-shop features locally sourced fashion accessories and homeware curated by Nuovum.
ADDRESS
Carrer de Trafalgar 26
-
All-In is the Paris-based label making full-force fashion for main character dressingPart of our monthly Uprising series, Wallpaper* meets Benjamin Barron and Bror August Vestbø of All-In, the LVMH Prize-nominated label which bases its collections on a riotous cast of characters – real and imagined
-
Maserati joins forces with Giorgetti for a turbo-charged relationshipAnnouncing their marriage during Milan Design Week, the brands unveiled a collection, a car and a long term commitment
-
Through an innovative new training program, Poltrona Frau aims to safeguard Italian craftThe heritage furniture manufacturer is training a new generation of leather artisans
-
Sun-soaked European destinations to visit in springDreaming of Florentine palazzos and Greek islands now that the weather is starting to turn? Check into one of these beautiful European hotels and holiday homes
-
Esperit Roca is a restaurant of delicious brutalism and six-course dessertsIn Girona, the Roca brothers dish up daring, sensory cuisine amid a 19th-century fortress reimagined by Andreu Carulla Studio
-
Must-visit cinemas with award-worthy designThere’s more magic to the movies at these design-led cinemas, from Busan Cinema Centre’s ‘flying’ roof to The Gem Cinema Jaipur’s art deco allure
-
‘I explored Benidorm with an open mind’: the famous Spanish seaside town is captured in a new photo bookFrom neon lights to pink sunburns, photographer Rob Ball turns his lens on Benidorm to see what remains of a ‘pan-European holiday utopia’
-
Wallpaper* checks in at Brach Madrid: a hotel of love and passionBrach Madrid, part of Evok Collection, is a charming city-centre bolthole designed by Philippe Starck
-
2025 getaways: where Wallpaper* editors will be travelling to this yearFrom the Japanese art islands of Naoshima and Teshima to the Malaysian tropical paradise of Langkawi, here’s where Wallpaper* editors plan to travel to in 2025
-
The most whimsical hotel Christmas trees around the worldWe round up the best hotel Christmas tree collaborations of the year, from an abstract take in Madrid to a heritage-rooted installation in Amsterdam
-
The world’s best new hotels that we’re loving without reservationExplore the best new openings in the world, from Orient Express’ La Dolce Vita train and first-ever hotel to Capella’s debut in Taipei
