Hotel Casa Fuster

This guide to Hotel Casa Fuster in Barcelona traces the marble mansion architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner built between 1908 and 1911 as Mariano Fuster's extravagant gift to his wife, Consuelo Fabra, whose initials are still carved into a rose window on the side street. It follows the family's decline within a decade, the building's years of disrepair, and the 1962 street protest that stopped a power company from demolishing it. Look for the carved C and F in the stone as you take in how close this landmark came to vanishing.