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After the urbanization of the old Camino de Jesús, which became the new Paseo de Gracia, the Barcelona bourgeoisie quickly chose this area to move their old family buildings to this new area of the city.
This was a way to quickly forget the years lived within the walls lacking comforts and what was worse, lacking pure air and, on the other hand, with bad smells.
The new buildings that began to be built in the area were single-family mansions facing the four winds, with landscaped plots and in some cases small buildings intended for the caretaker's home.
The old road that linked Barcelona with Villa de Gracia quickly began to be populated with buildings, uniting the two municipalities, whose border at that time was at Provenza Street, since until April 20, 1897 The annexation of Gracia to Barcelona was not decreed.
Paseo de Gracia began to be coveted by businessmen who saw the place as a matter of prestige, apart from a good investment.
The most famous architects were overwhelmed with calls due to the large number of clients who visited their offices to contract a new construction.
Subsequently, some businessmen saw a new business and looked for architects who would build them buildings with the main floor as a family home and on top of it build three floors that they would dedicate to rent as housing or for offices of large companies. Hence the construction of the buildings of La Pedrera, Casa Batlló or Casa Amatller and Lleó Morera.
The Emilio Vidal Ribas mansion was built at number 19, on the corner of Diputación Street, by Jeroni Granell, in 1863, in the neoclassical style. It consisted of a ground floor and two floors.
The ground floor would be used as offices and on the two upper floors, they would dedicate the first to the family, with the living rooms and family rooms, and on the second they would locate the service rooms and those formerly called "the golfas" (rooms in which that rarely used things were kept).
At the back of the building that bordered the House of César Ortembach, a splendid garden would be built that would serve as a place of relaxation for its inhabitants and visitors.
The Vidal Ribas family belonged to the bourgeoisie, well known in the world of business and sports. José Vidal Ribas, born in 1814, the first descendant of José Vidal Mayol, further enhanced the business and name of the family, both in the commercial and sporting aspects.
Emilio Vidal Ribas founded the pharmaceutical and industrial drugstore trade in 1831, known as "Hijos de José Vidal Ribas". Later, he opened one of the most important drugstores in the city at Vía Layetana 110.
Vidal Ribas was head of the Somatén of Barcelona (a conservative Catalan paramilitary militia that spread to the rest of Spain with the rise to power of Primo de Rivera).
Another Vidal Ribas founded the Layetana Mutual Insurance Association. Another was vice president of the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce.
His son José Vidal-Ribas Güell was a businessman, tennis player and captain of the Spanish Davis Cup team, who, upon leaving the sport, held the presidency of the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona, the Catalan Tennis Federation and was a member of the Olympic Committee. Spanish.
After the civil war, Enrique Piñeyro, Marquis de la Mesa de Asta, as president, was named vice president of the Barcelona Football Club, subsequently holding the positions of treasurer, president and member, until the arrival of Miró Sans.
With the death of Emilio Vidal Ribas, the mansion was rented by his relatives, a circumstance that, in 1932, was used by the Lliga Regionalista to establish its headquarters on the main floor of the building.
The Lliga Regionalista, founded on April 25, 1901, had until then had its central office at 4 Boters main street.
After the civil war, the ground floor of the building was converted into the Sala Barcino art gallery, but the profusion of art galleries on Paseo de Gracia and the lack of good professional management caused it to close four years later.
After the closure, the premises underwent restructuring to convert it into the Magda Perfumery, one of the most prestigious of that time.
At the beginning of the sixties, it continued as one of the mansions built on Paseo de Gracia, which had not yet been demolished, to build a large building.
But the Casa Vidal Ribas, on the occasion of the construction of the new headquarters of the Foreign Bank of Spain, in Barcelona, also suffered the rigor of the pickaxe. The bank was inaugurated on December 11, 1963.
Bank restructuring and the need to find an ideal place to move the Barcelona Stock Exchange to the center of the city meant that, at the end of the 20th century, after a severe refurbishment to carry out its mission, the premises were converted into the Headquarters. of the Barcelona Stock Exchange.
The Vidal Ribas family, which has always remained united, in 2005, created a website to announce the 1st Vidal-Ribas Meeting, with the intention of meeting and getting to know all the members of the family and learning about any type of event both whether it was sad or happy. This event was attended by 330 attendees.
