Josep Xifré was a rich Indian who had made his fortune in America and when he returned he invested his wealth in an elegant residential building. The construction was in charge of Francesc Vila and Josep Boixareu, who commissioned a building for him and his family, in a land near the roman walls, the best site in the city at that time. This is how the famous “Porxos d’en Xifré” are born, the popular name given by the arcade structure surrounding the ground floor of the five bodies that make up the building.

In one of those houses the Ruiz Picasso family lived when he arrived in Barcelona in 1895. It is said that Pablo Picasso often climbed the terrace of the building from where he painted some of his urban landscapes. The ground floor was used for shops and there was a large luxury cafe. The place had seven doors so I end up calling it “Les 7 Portes”.

The building, apart from its beauty, has the prestige of being the first Spanish building to be photographed by the primitive technique of the daguerreotype, it is believed that no copy of it is kept, on the internet circulates a photos that say that it is a copy of the original but it is false.