The Arús Library and Freemasonry

Barcelona’s Biblioteca Arús is one of the most important libraries in Europe on the social and labour movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It also holds the whole of Rosendo Arús’s important Masonic legacy, along with other donations of the same kind.

Rosendo Arús i Arderiu, a driving force behind Freemasonry in 19th-century Catalonia, named as his heirs Valentí Almirall and Antoni Farnés, well-known Masons of the day, with the express aim of using his legacy to create a public library that would bring knowledge to the working class. And that’s exactly what they did. A few years after his death, with the Coros de Clavé choirs in attendance, the library opened in 1895 in what had been his home. A small library with fine hardwood furniture, reached by a majestic staircase with Ionic columns on either side and a replica of the Statue of Liberty to welcome you (Barcelona has one too!). These are clear signs of Masonic inspiration, as are the black and white chequered floor and a drawing of a human figure in a Phrygian cap beside the symbol of Freemasonry par excellence, the square and compasses, set above the coat of arms of the Avant lodge, founded by Arús himself.

During the war, the caretaker would open the library whenever the city wasn’t being bombed. It was also home to him and his family, so his children ran about and rode their bikes along the library’s corridors. After the war, the centre stayed closed from 1940 to 1967. There are several versions of what happened; one of them is that a Falangist intellectual, José Maluquer, aware of the centre’s true value, managed to keep the legacy intact so that it wasn’t plundered by the victors, whose ideology was utterly opposed to everything the place held.

Today, despite being more than a hundred years old, its founding statutes are still in force.

Now it’s a quiet place with few visitors. Throughout the year it hosts lectures, courses and seminars on Freemasonry and other subjects related to its collection.

Address: Passeig Sant Joan 26, 08010 Barcelona

Tel: 93 232 24 04

Follow this link to see photos of the Arús library.

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