Cafe Four Cats is a favorite place of Pablo Picasso. Four Cats Restaurant, Barcelona An excerpt describing the Four Cats

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Can you imagine drinking coffee in a cozy restaurant with, for example, Pablo Picasso? It's quite easy, you just have to wander through the streets of the Gothic Quarter, find on one of them (carrer Montsi;, 3 bis) an original building in the Gothic style, where the bar-restaurant under the wonderful name Els Quatre Gats - "Four Cats" is located. Sit at a table, order a cup of coffee, look around and ... plunge into the unique atmosphere of this place. Almost nothing has changed here since Pablo Picasso was a frequenter of the tavern.
It all started when, at the end of the 19th century, an unknown person returned to Barcelona from France. In Paris, he worked as a waiter and animator in the famous cabaret Le Chat Noir - "The Black Cat". Returning to his homeland, he set about trying to open something similar in Barcelona.

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A kind of tavern-style artistic bohemian place with inexpensive food and live music. His name was Pere Romeu.
This idea appealed to those for whom, in fact, the institution was intended - people from the art world: artists Miguel Utrillo, Ramon Casas and Santiago Rusinol. Together with Romeu, they began to look for a suitable room. The choice fell on Marty's House. In 1895, the architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch, then young but already promising, received a commission to reconstruct this house. The modernist architect made it in an exquisite pseudo-Gothic style, finished with ceramics and wrought iron.

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In such an original building, these four decided to open a tavern: Romeu, Rusinol, Casas and Utriyo. Lost in the narrow streets of the Gothic Quarter, the location of Marty's house confused them a little. Friends joked that no one would wander here, except for four cats ... Why four, and even cats? It's just what the Catalans say when it comes to a small number of people. In addition, cats were not in vain mentioned in the name, as you remember, the tavern was conceived in the style of the Parisian “Black Cat”. On the other hand, there were four founders ...

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The tavern opened its doors to visitors in 1897. The announcement was jokingly written by Santiago Rusinol: "People with good taste who need food not only for the stomach, but also for the soul ...". The lines painted on the wall became a peculiar motto of the tavern: “Life needs good food and more fun” (L’ home que he vulga viure, Bons aliments y molt riure). The hall was decorated with numerous sketches, drawings and posters, and a piano was placed for the invited musicians.

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To decorate the hall, Ramon Casas painted a huge picture of himself and Pere Romeu on a tandem bicycle. The author's joking caption read: "Riding a bike, don't keep your back so straight", hinting that he has to pedal, while Romeu is just posing. In 1901, this picture was replaced by another: "Ramon Casas and Pere Romeu in a car." Casas depicted himself and his friend in fur coats, now driving a car in the company of his beloved dog Ziem on the hood. The machine, as it seemed to him, was more in line with the trends of the new century.

Despite the fears of the organizers, the institution immediately became popular among people of art - young and bohemian. It soon became a place as wild as it was inviting. To attract visitors, they organized the first exhibition of paintings painted by artists - regulars of the institution. They began to give performances of Chinese shadow theater and puppet theater. Unexpectedly, it was these performances that attracted bourgeois visitors. Whole families came to the tavern to enjoy hot chocolate and watch performances. Ter
thulia - friendly debate. There were many who wished, if not to participate in them, then simply to listen to clever bold speeches. Furious disputes sometimes dragged on until the morning.
The fame of the institution soon crossed the borders of Barcelona. So many people flocked to meetings with visiting celebrities from the art world that the owner had to put additional tables and chairs.

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In the second year of the tavern's existence, seventeen-year-old Pablo Picasso appeared in it. With admiration, he listened to the speeches of long-haired, bearded, casually dressed artists, who enthusiastically proclaimed new ideas in art. This bohemian atmosphere so captivated the imagination of the young man that he asked permission to paint portraits of the regulars, to which the latter gladly agreed.

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On February 1, 1900, the first exhibition of the artist was held, consisting of twenty-five paintings: portraits of artists and artists, visitors to the Four Cats. In imitation of Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso designed the menu cover for the tavern. From that moment on, he became a constant participant in the "gatherings", which, unfortunately, became less and less. Innovators-rebels gradually achieved fame and became wealthy. Nothing in them was reminiscent of those revolutionaries who dreamed of destroying the old dogmatic norms in painting. Now they sought to establish themselves in a different, more select society.

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In 1899, Picasso left for Paris, and returning two years later, he again comes to the Four Cats, hoping to plunge into the old atmosphere, but alas ... Everything has changed in such a previously unusual institution. From the spirit of freethinking that once reigned here, not a trace remains.
The intoxicating heyday of the tavern ended, as usually happens in such cases, with a long hangover. The financial situation left much to be desired: Casas and Rusiñol spent most of their time in Paris, while the vast majority of visitors strove to "sit" for free.

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Pere Romeu turned out to be a poor manager, spending most of his time talking to clients about how to "make the world a better place." Yes, and he was not a good cook, the restaurant menu left much to be desired. He was more of an artist than a businessman, forbidding, for example, waiters to sweep cobwebs around the corners, believing that this (as well as the untidy appearance of his owner) gave the place a bohemian look. Accustomed to serving artists and staging performances, he increasingly began to turn into the owner of an ordinary restaurant, of which there are many in the area. One fine day (6 years after opening) Pere decided to finally close the tavern.

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The news of this greatly upset the people of Barcelona. In one of the magazines of that time, a drawing was published, in which four cats cry bitterly in front of the closed door of a tavern with a sign “For Rent”. The drawing was accompanied by a quatrain, it can be translated approximately as follows: “Pere left us in the cold, is there a kind soul that will take us under his protection?”
The failed businessman himself enthusiastically gave himself up to another type of activity: cars. He worked in a garage and competed in the now fashionable car races before he died in 1908 of tuberculosis. He died in poverty... “He used to drink cheerful wine from an earthen vessel, but gasoline killed him,” wrote Santiago Rusiñol at the end of an excited article in memory of a friend, “a short entrepreneurial experience, a short life and a big heart ... Remembering you , we will miss those times when our dreams were easily realized ... "

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For many years the institution remained closed, and only relatively recently (in 1993) the doors of Els Quatre Gats reopened to visitors. The new owners tried to recreate the interior of the famous restaurant as accurately as possible. The same menu designed by Picasso, the same inscription "Food and drink served at any time", live music in the evenings, as its founder dreamed. True, you will no longer see cobwebs in the corners, and the dishes are cooked perfectly. The current owners decided to revive the tradition of puppet theater performances by inviting the well-known troupe of the Berges Theater in Barcelona to conduct a series of Sunday performances.

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Two large (in the size of the originals) copies of Casas' paintings also hang on the walls. (The original of one of them, showing friends on a bicycle, is in the National Museum of Catalan Art. The other belongs to the descendants of Abadal, a pioneer of the Spanish automobile industry. The owners of the painting only occasionally put it on public display.)

The restaurant is always full in the evenings. Its atmosphere still attracts celebrities from all over the world. An elderly waiter, who has worked here for more than 20 years, even finds it difficult to list all the famous people who have visited the Four Cats. These are the consuls of Brazil, Portugal, China, Japan, and even Sylvia - the Queen of Sweden, singer Placidlo Domingo, politicians and football players.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sight
Cafe "Four Cats" Els Quatre Gats
Entrance to the cafe
The country	Spain
City	Barcelona
Architect	Josep Puig
Foundation date	1897
Status	Active
State	restored
Website

Coordinates : 41°23′08″ s. sh. 2°10′24″ in. d. /  41.38556° N sh. 2.17333° E d. / 41.38556; 2.17333 (G) (I)

Initially included a small hotel and a cabaret. It is famous primarily for the fact that Pablo Picasso and his famous friend Antonio Gaudi, sculptor Julio Gonzalez and composer Isaac Albeniz and many other talents of the "beautiful era" were his regular guests. In 1900, the cafe hosted the first two solo exhibitions of Picasso's work.

The cafe is located on a narrow street in the Gothic Quarter, open from one in the afternoon until one in the morning, a pianist plays in the evenings. At one time, such famous composers as Isaac Albeniz and Enrique Granados performed in this capacity.

During the reign of Franco, the cafe building was demolished, but in the 1970s. it was completely restored to its original form as part of a program to increase the attractiveness of Barcelona for tourists.

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An excerpt characterizing the Four Cats

The old man at first looked at his son with fixed eyes and unnaturally revealed with a smile a new lack of a tooth, to which Prince Andrei could not get used.
- What kind of friend, my dear? BUT? Already talked! BUT?
“Father, I didn’t want to be a judge,” said Prince Andrei in a bilious and harsh tone, “but you called me, and I said and I will always say that Princess Mary is not to blame, but to blame ... this Frenchwoman is to blame ...
- And he awarded! So that your spirit is not here! ..

Prince Andrei wanted to leave immediately, but Princess Mary begged to stay another day. On this day, Prince Andrei did not see his father, who did not go out and did not let anyone in, except m lle Bourienne and Tikhon, and asked several times if his son had left. The next day, before leaving, Prince Andrei went to take his son's half. A healthy, curly-haired boy sat on his lap. Prince Andrei began to tell him the tale of Bluebeard, but, without finishing it, he thought. He was not thinking about this pretty boy son while he was holding him on his lap, but was thinking about himself. He searched with horror and did not find in himself either repentance that he had irritated his father, or regret that he (in a quarrel for the first time in his life) was leaving him. The main thing for him was that he was looking for and did not find that former tenderness for his son, which he hoped to arouse in himself by caressing the boy and placing him on his knees.
“Well, tell me,” said the son. Prince Andrei, without answering him, removed him from the columns and left the room.
As soon as Prince Andrei left his daily activities, especially as soon as he entered the former conditions of life, in which he was even when he was happy, the melancholy of life seized him with the same force, and he hurried to get away from these memories as soon as possible and find some business soon.
– Are you determined to go, Andre? his sister told him.
“Thank God that I can go,” said Prince Andrei, “I am very sorry that you cannot.
- Why are you saying this! - said Princess Mary. “Why are you saying this now, when you are going to this terrible war and he is so old!” M lle Bourienne said that he asked about you ... - As soon as she began to talk about it, her lips trembled and tears dripped. Prince Andrei turned away from her and began to pace the room.

Cafe Four Cats is a legendary place in Barcelona. I once wrote about places where you can. Of course, this institution never belongs to budget restaurants, but you can’t call it an expensive cafe either.

Located in the very center of Barcelona, ​​it opened in 1897. The cafe was founded by Pere Romeu, who stole the idea when he was a host at the Le Chat Noir cabaret in Paris.

view of the cafe in 1901

At the beginning of the 20th century, in addition to the restaurant itself, guests could use the services of the hotel, and in the evenings watch the famous cabaret. The Four Cats restaurant was interesting because its visitors were: the artist Pablo Picasso, the sculptor Julio Gonzalez, the pianist Enrique Granados, the composer Isaac Albeniz, and many other famous personalities. I already have a detailed article about it. Cafe Four Cats is also a landmark to some extent, associated with a famous artist who took part in the cover design of the menu of the institution. At the beginning of the 20th century, it hosted the Picasso Biennale.

Picasso and co

The director of the cafe was a very famous among the Catalan elite Pere Romeu. His work as an accompanist in a cafe inspired him to create a bohemian restaurant for artists, writers and other artists.

Restaurant interior

The cafe is located on the 1st floor of the House of Marti, which was designed by the famous Catalan architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch. Familiar surname, right? .. 🙂 Let me remind you that it was he who was engaged in reconstruction, an article about which you can also read on my website.

Initially, the building was supposed to be used as an apartment building, and the second floor became a law firm. Actually, almost all the houses of Antonio Gaudi were built for such purposes. However, soon, the first floor was bought by Pere Romeu, who founded the restaurant.

outside view

The main architectural features of the building are its large pointed arches on the windows, as well as stained-glass windows located on the first floor. The loggia located on the side of the facade, as well as the ornament in the form of a flame, looks original.

The sculpture, which is located on the corner of the building, symbolizes St. Joseph with a baby in his arms. This is a monument by the famous Spanish sculptor Giuseppe Llimona.

The interior of the institution resembles the Parisian cafe Black Cat. During the reconstruction phase of the 1st floor, the project was financed by a wealthy artist from Barcelona Ramon Casas. He paid for wrought-iron chandeliers and furniture designed by the same Josep Puig i Cadafalch.

The walls of the institution were decorated with paintings and ceramics of various colors. On one of the walls is a reproduction of a painting depicting the founders of the restaurant on a big bike. In another picture - they are the same, but in a car.

Pere Romeu and Ramon Casas on a bike

The cafe-restaurant was neglected for a long time and began to receive its first visitors only in the 1990s of the last century. Everything remains the same in this cafe, even the prices for food are not too high.

Despite the fame of the cafe, the prices here are quite reasonable. It is quite possible to come here for breakfast and plunge into the Renaissance.

cafe breakfast price

Also very close is another well-known gastronomic place in Barcelona - where I also highly recommend a look.

How to get there

Cafe Four cats is located at st. Carrer de Montsió, 3.

As I have said many times before, the Gothic Quarter is the perfect place to stay in Barcelona.

Well, for this I say goodbye! Until the next articles!

Walking through the streets of the Old Town of the Catalan capital, it would be simply blasphemy not to visit the legendary cafe-restaurant "Four Cats", located on one of the streets of the Gothic Quarter.

It is impossible not to talk about the magnificent architecture of the building. The cafe is located on the first floor of the House of Marti, the project of which belongs to the famous representative of Catalan modernism, Josep Puig-i-Cadafalca.

This is one of the first works of a novice architect in the capital of Catalonia. The house was planned to be used as a profitable one, so the second floor soon became a law office, and the lower one remained unoccupied for a long time, until Pere Romeu was rented.

The distinctive architectural features of the mansion are simply huge pointed window arches, stained glass windows that adorn the first floor. An unusual "fiery" ornament crowns the windows and balconies. The loggia located on the side of the facade looks especially unusual.

The corner sculpture depicting St. Joseph, in whose arms is the baby Jesus, cannot go unnoticed. She came out from under the chisel of the Catalan sculptor Josep Llimona. But, today's version is just a copy, installed in 2000 and replacing the lost original.

famous visitors

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries of the last century, the Four Cats was a meeting place for the intellectual and artistic elite of Barcelona. This cafe gathered such famous personalities as Santiago Rusinola, Ramon Casos, Ricardo Opisso, who for some time was an assistant to the great Antonio Gaudi, Manuel Uge, and also the very young Picasso. This place in 1900 became the first exhibition area for the future great artist. Famous composers also visited here: Enrique Granados, Isaac Albeniz. The look of the menu cover was designed by 19-year-old Pablo Picasso, inspired by Toulouse-Lautrec posters, and is still used today.

A bit of history about the creation of the cafe

One of the founders is Pere Romeu - now a fairly well-known personality, a famous modernist artist. But, at that distant time, he was just a waiter and part-time entertainer in the popular cabaret of Paris "The Black Cat". Impressed by the atmosphere of this unusual place, the young man decides to recreate something that is not inferior in scale to his native Barcelona: a small cozy restaurant where music should constantly sound and which would become a meeting place for friends from the art world.

The institution opened its doors in June 1897. Today's interior of this legendary place practically does not differ from the original.

It will be interesting

If you remember, the prototype of the cafe was a Parisian cabaret, the name of which also traces the “cat” theme. It would seem that Romeu has the same theme in the very name of the institution, but this is not entirely true. The fact is that the phrase "quatre gats" is a kind of turnover, which means a small number of people. And this already emphasizes the bohemian purpose of this place.

Quite often you can hear a different interpretation of the name: four cats are four inseparable friends: Ramon Casas, Miguel Utriyo, Santiago Rusinol and the founder of the institution himself.

Interior

The interior design was borrowed from a Parisian cabaret. The financial expenses for creating a unique style were partially taken over by the owner's friend, a wealthy Barcelona artist Ramon Casas. He paid for the magnificent wrought-iron chandeliers and furniture designed by the famous Puig i Cadafalch.

The walls were decorated with paintings and colorful ceramic tiles. All this can be seen now.

The wall of the establishment is decorated with a reproduction of the famous painting depicting both founders of this place on a tandem bicycle. You can get acquainted with the original by visiting the Barcelona Museum. Most of this work, unfortunately, has been lost, since the last owner cut off a large piece from it, which is why the right wheel seems to be cut off.

Another reproduction that attracts attention shows the same Casas and Romeu, but already replacing an outdated tandem bicycle with a more modern means of transportation: a car. This time, the favorite terrier of the artist Zieme joined the company of the main characters.

"Four Cats", after many years of desolation, opened its doors in 1993. Unusual interior, the opportunity to touch the living history.

And still distinguish this institution, attracting many visitors. But, the only thing that has really changed since the time this cafe was open is the prices. Now a cup of coffee drunk in this pretentious institution will cost a lot, but the coffee is very tasty, as are the cookies.

Where is:

The address Carrer de Montsió, 3, 08002 Barcelona

Work schedule:

Daily from 9-00 to 24-00

"Four cats" - bohemian restaurant with a great history. It opened in 1897 and gained fame in Europe as an artistic and intellectual center. The restaurant occupies its worthy niche in the history of Catalonia. Its regulars were world-famous Pablo Picasso, Antonio Gaudi, Salvador Dali, sculptor Julio Gonzalez. The debut exhibition of the young Picasso was held here. The famous composers Isaac Albeniz and Enrique Granados played music here as pianists. The interior and menu of the restaurant have retained the design developed for the Picasso restaurant.

The restaurant "Four Cats" is located on a narrow street in and occupies the first floor of an old house, which was built in 1896 and reconstructed in 1978. The restaurant is open from eight in the morning until two in the morning, and in the evenings a maestro pianist plays here. If you are a fan of haute cuisine and white tablecloths, then this is definitely not the place for you. The format of this institution is somewhat different. There is little pomposity here, and there is more than enough color. Wooden tables of different sizes are placed in two halls - they can accommodate from two to twelve guests. The waiters are exclusively men of respectable age, cheerful and colorful.

Menu and prices in the restaurant "Four Cats"

And, of course, national cuisine in all its diversity. The dishes are mainly Spanish and Catalan cuisine. Jamon, fish and seafood dishes are cooked here very tasty. There is a del dia menu and a Saturday menu, which includes first and second courses, bread, dessert, water, wine. To order a meal from the del dia menu for 2 people will cost 35 euros. The menu card offers a fairly large selection of salads, appetizers, meat and fish dishes, and desserts. The average price of a visit is 48 euros. During the day you can sit here with a cup of coffee, and in the evening, to the accompaniment of live music, have dinner.

Address of the restaurant "Four Cats": Carrer de Montsió, 3, Barcelona.