Paco Abadal and Mercedes Durán: the first tenants in the Casa Milà- La Pedrera

The Paco Abadal Cultural Association has shared with us the history of the Abadal family and their relationship with Casa Milà, as they were its first tenants.

Francisco Serramalera Abadal (later Abadal Serramalera), known as Paco Abadal, was born in Manresa on 28 July 1875. Shortly thereafter, he moved with his family to Barcelona, where he lived in several homes in the newly developed Eixample district.

During his years of study, he developed an interest in cycling, a discipline in which he became a highly regarded professional at the turn of the 20th century.

Thanks to this activity, he accumulated a modest fortune which, in 1902, enabled him to open a workshop dedicated to the repair, maintenance, storage, and sale of bicycles, motorcycles, and automobiles: the legendary Auto-Garage Central, initially located on Carrer del Consell de Cent. The business later moved to Carrer d’Aragó and expanded to additional premises on Carrer de Sepúlveda, Plaça de Letamendi, and the Carretera de Sarrià.

Alongside his commercial and industrial activity, he continued to devote himself to cycling and later to motorcycle and motor racing, fields in which he also won numerous prizes.

At that time, he came into contact with the Modernist painter Ramon Casas—also an automobile enthusiast—whom he commissioned to design a poster to promote his Auto-Garage Central. Casas later painted portraits of Abadal’s wife, children, and himself. He was also gifted the famous early 20th-century painting that had decorated the walls of the brewery Els Quatre Gats, which was later displayed in his home on Plaça de Letamendi.

In October 1912, Francisco Abadal married Mercedes Durán, daughter of the wealthy Catalan merchant and industrialist Joaquim Durán Albert and Mª Luisa Clarà. That same year, the couple moved into the first apartment on the third floor of Passeig de Gràcia, in a newly constructed building.

Joaquim Durán Albert, a Catalan merchant and industrialist, likely knew Pedro Milà through their shared involvement on the board of the Liga de Defensa Industrial y Comercial de Barcelona, an association of merchants and small industrialists.

The wedding and the couple’s new residence were mentioned in a notice published on 10 October 1912 in El Mundo Deportivo, describing the ceremony, the gifts received, and the couple’s residence in the building designed by Gaudí on Passeig de Gràcia.

As indicated in the article, after returning from their honeymoon, the couple settled into the first apartment on the third floor of Passeig de Gràcia. The bride’s parents, Joaquim Durán and Mª Luisa Clarà, had already moved into the adjoining apartment. At that time, Casa Milà was a highly sought-after residence among Barcelona’s bourgeoisie.

In 1914, the Abadal Durán couple’s first daughter, María Luisa, was born in La Pedrera, followed in 1916 by their second child, Francisco.

The six family members lived in Casa Milà until the early 1930s, when they inaugurated their new residence, the Abadal Palace, located at the intersection of Avinguda Diagonal and Carrer del Capità Arenas, designed by architect Adolf Florensa (1889–1968).

Francisco Abadal Serramalera died in Barcelona on 17 December 1939.