The building the medium romàntic hotel is located in was an important part of Sitges’ “Route of the Indians”. The Indians, or Americans (as they are called in Sitges), left Spain for the American colonies (Cuba, Puerto Rico etc.) in the middle and late nineteenth century, due to the serious economic downturn the country wa going through.
In the fishing village of Sitges there were many young people who left to try to make their fortune, among them Facundo Bacardí (founder of the alcoholic beverages brand Bacardi) and Brugal, founder of Ron Brugal. The Indians who managed to make money returned and built large houses where they spent the last years of their lives, retired, and living off the rent.
Our building, built in 1897 in a colonial style, is a typical Indian house and, as such, was the residence of wealthy families until the 1950s, when it was reconverted into the Tropic hotel. Among the workers in the Tropic was Gonçal Sobrer, a very active artist and painter on Barcelona’s art scene. In 1958 he took the plunge, acquired the hotel, added another building and changed the name of the establishment: the Hotel Romàntic was born.
The history of the hotel is marked by the charismatic figure of Sobrer who, according to the Catalan Encyclopedia, turned the Hotel Romàntic “into a focus of cultural activity for half a century” in Sitges. Today the hotel houses a collection of more than 300 works of art, with murals by Sobrer himself and paintings and sculptures by various Catalan artists (Arranz Bravo, Rosa Bachs, Xaus, Pilar Perdices, Subirats, Joan Iriarte, and Gerard Sala).
The Hotel Romàntic was the “fifth museum” of the town for a long time, but its importance went far beyond the artistic: in the sixties it opened its doors to the gay community of the whole of Europe. The so-called “gay tourism” took discrete steps, first in the hotel, and then, little by little, it took hold until it achieved its current prominence. In the garden and in the Romàntic bar, they ended up celebrating festivals, parties, and the Carnival itself.
Indians, art, culture and changes in society: the history of the Hotel Romàntic is an extraordinary piece of Sitges’ own history.
