Casa Francisco Vilumara was designed by Domènec Balet on Paseo de Gracia Nº61, chamfered with Calle Valencia where today the well-known Tiffany & CO jewelry store is located on the ground floor (at the moment we do not know the year of its construction).

In 1925 the architect Juan Buxeres raised the house two stories, the galleries were added to the main and first floors and decorative elements were added to the roof.

Vilumara Saus, Francisco. Barcelona, ​​1826 – 1878. Silk and financial businessman. Born in 1826, he built one of the most important silk companies in Barcelona and certainly in Spain, and was the promoter of the largest non-anonymous Catalan credit institution.

In 1862 Vilumara Hermanos y Cía was created. from the small workshop of Father Ramon Vilumara Broquetas (Barcelona, ​​1800-1869); after his death, the business remained in the hands of Francisco alone. In the early 1860s, with 91 looms and 202 workers, it was the third largest factory in the seder sector in Barcelona. The building in the old town of Barcelona was not only too small, but it should have been impossible to install a steam engine; That is why the Vilumara inaugurated a factory in 1865 in the rural setting that now occupies Plaza Macià.

In 1862, he materialized the idea of ​​setting up a “trade bank, both to use surplus capital and to offer trade protection and assistance”. His success made it advisable to dissolve it and refound it the following year with more partners and more capital. Thus, with a capital of 2,646,000 pesetas -of which only 25% was initially disbursed-, Vilumara, Bianchi y Cía., or Credito Mutuo Fabril y Mercantil, was born, although it was always known as Caja Vilumara.

In the 1850s and 1860s Francisco Vilumara also invested in different companies and, after the crisis of 1866, he did so repeatedly in the real estate sector. When he died his real estate amounted to 1,146,080 pesetas, while his business was valued at 474,324.

The business passed to his son Francisco Vilumara Bayona (Barcelona, ​​1864-1934), who in 1907 opened a new factory in Hospitalet. In the hands of Josep Maria Vilumara Carreras, the company became a Vilumara public limited company in 1942. It closed in 1982.

Bibl.: Á. Solà, "Francesc Vilumara Saus", in F. Cabana, One Hundred Catalan Entrepreneurs, Madrid, Lid, 2006.

Original text: Angels Solà Parera

Source: Real Academia de la Historia