Project approved for the first stage of work on the Borsí
The first stage of work on the Borsí will see preliminary and preparatory work carried out to enable this heritage building to be completely renovated. Consisting of a ground floor and three upper floors, the Borsí will house the Gòtic - Andreu Nin Library and a facility for local organisations, with uses still to be defined.
The complete revamp to the Borsí will redistribute its space, recover and preserve the façade and the most significant original decorative spaces, and renew the roof and facilities. The first stage of the work has a budget of 4.3 million euros and should take twenty months.
A neighbourhood facility
Regaining the building for the neighbourhood was an initiative in the Neighbourhood Plan for El Raval and El Gòtic, where local people played a key part in jointly deciding the new uses for the Borsí. The building has been unused since 2009, and after more than a decade standing empty Barcelona City Council purchased it from the Government of Catalonia in 2017.
Built in the neoclassical style between 1881 and 1883, the building has had various uses. Up until 1915 it was the city’s private stock exchange, the Casino Mercantil. Following the regularisation of the stock market, it was turned into a newer trading exchange, the Mercat Lliure de Valors. The building was used as a school from the 1940s, firstly as the Escola de Belles Arts and later as the Escola d’Arts i Oficis de la Llotja.
