Barcelona Tibidabo

Published on: 29/11/2017

Placed at Tibidabo avenue of Barcelona, the headquarters of Mutua Universal is a palacete built by the architect Enrique Sagnier and Villavecchia, between years 1915 and 1918. It was ordered by the doctor Salvador Andreu, a pharmaceutical acquaintance, employer and philanthropist from Barcelona that entered the pharmaceutical industry in Spain, drove the urbanisation of the mountain of Tibidabo, such as we know it today and went mecenas of great artists, especially of Enrique Granados to that which united him a great friendship.

Front view of the headquarters of Mutua Universal in Barcelona

The headquarters of Mutua Universal is part of a complex of 3 buildings in which the central areas of the Company are concentrated.

Internal Vista of the headquarters of Mutua Universal in Barcelona

The building of 800 square metre has aesthetic novecentista, is surrounded for a broad garden and it has ground floor, main and garrets flat with caked with blackboards and windows in mansardas.

The main facade is structured on an axis of symmetry, starting from two prominent bodies on one of head office, in which the front door is found in ground floor and a great balcony in the flat, finished off with an imposing sculpted pediment.

Side view of the building of the headquarters of Mutua Universal in Barcelona

The building has a great tall historical cost and it is classed as protected heritage of level C, since during the Civil War held the Consulate General of USSR with range of embassy, whose legation was captained by Vladímir Antónov Ovseenko, one of the heroes of the Revolution of October 1917.


The building holds a búnker that was built in 1936 to protect to the members of the consulate of the bombings of the Italian aviation.

The búnker

This búnker of more than 50 square metre is kept intact, with its protected dependences between thick reinforced concrete walls of 40 cm to that which is accessed for two hecklers cast iron doors just manipulables from inside. It has various offices, latrines and a freelance generator of electricity that it fed the electrical installation.

Interior of the former one búnker placed at the headquarters of Mutua UniversalEntrance of the former one búnker placed at the inferior plant of the headquarters of Mutua UniversalDoor of the former one búnker placed at the headquarters of Mutua Universal in Barcelona""