BLESS Barcelona opens on Plaça de Catalunya: 119 rooms and a rooftop pool

Palladium returns to Barcelona, at the foot of Plaça de Catalunya

The Ibiza-based group opened BLESS Barcelona on 10 August 2026, at number 10 Plaça de Catalunya, in the Eixample. The address needs no defending: the square is the city’s transport hub, Passeig de Gràcia and its modernista façades begin a few dozen metres away, and El Prat airport is roughly twenty-five minutes out.

This marks Palladium Hotel Group’s return to the Catalan capital, this time under its upscale BLESS Collection Hotels banner, and the property joins the Preferred Legend Collection by Preferred Hotels & Resorts from day one. One hundred and nineteen rooms and suites, five stars, and an interior scheme that folds classical vocabulary into contemporary lines, over a base of Mediterranean materials.

La Pajarera, the rooftop that echoes the Gran Café Colón

The sky lounge on the top floor is called La Pajarera and brings together food, a music programme and signature cocktails, with the city laid out below. The cocktail list is the work of mixologist Adriana Chía, and the space can be taken over privately for around fifty guests.

The name is a nod, and it is worth unpacking. The rooftop pays tribute to the Gran Café Colón, one of the busiest addresses in late nineteenth-century Barcelona, which opened on 26 May 1897 as the Gran Café-Restaurant Colón. The room, vast for its day with some seven hundred seats, drew the figures of the city: the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Doctor Bartomeu Robert, the composer Amadeu Vives and Santiago Ramón y Cajal. It did so well that the café became a hotel five years later, reworked by the architect Andreu Audet, who married modernisme and art deco for an opening on 20 October 1902. BLESS does not occupy those walls, which are long gone, but it borrows their spirit of a fashionable perch above the square.

SINEDIE and Hofmann: dining from morning to night

Food works on two complementary registers. SINEDIE, the main restaurant, is built around a wine bar concept: Mediterranean produce, a carefully worked bottle list, and a private dining room built into the space, itself available for private hire for around fifty covers.

Straight off the lobby, a corner developed with Hofmann, a Barcelona institution in pastry and culinary training, serves artisan pastries, specialty coffee and both sweet and savoury bites throughout the day. Breakfast, which the brand calls BLESSed Breakfast, follows the same logic.

One hundred and nineteen rooms and suites, from 22 to 114 sq m

The range of categories is wide. It starts with the Superior Room at 25 sq m and the Superior Comfort Room at 26 sq m, then comes the Deluxe Terrace City View, tighter at 22 sq m but extended by a 10 sq m terrace over the city. The top end is split between the BLESSED Barcelona Suite and the BLESS Couture Penthouse, both at 80 sq m, and the Studio Suite, which tops out at 114 sq m. Some suites come with a jacuzzi.

The decoration stays true to the brand: pale tones, light fluted wood, furniture with pronounced curves, graphic rugs, and the generous light that the Eixample’s large openings allow. Nothing showy, and a rather measured reading of contemporary luxury.

Rooftop pool, gym and two private spaces

The pool sits on the roof, sheltered under a metal and timber pergola, ringed with loungers and open to the rooftops of the Eixample: an asset few addresses on the square can match. Fitness is handled by the FitNic Power GYM, alongside wellness spaces.

On the business side, the hotel has not built a conference centre but two rooms on a human scale: the private dining room at SINEDIE and the private zone at La Pajarera, each for up to around fifty people. An answer aimed at Barcelona’s market for small gatherings and company dinners rather than large formats.

BLESS Collection Hotels: four addresses, and a push into Asia

With Barcelona, the brand now runs four operating properties: BLESS Madrid, BLESS Ibiza Cala Nova, BLESS Ibiza The Site, and this Catalan newcomer. A modest footprint that the group intends to scale by leaving Spain.

The announced timetable heads first to Vietnam, with an 80-villa resort at Ninh Van Bay in 2027, followed by a property in Hanoi in 2028. Europe is not forgotten: a 100-key Milan address is scheduled for 2029. Two very different markets, then, upscale Asian beach and the Italian business city, for a brand so far confined to home ground.

What to know before booking

The hotel stands at Plaça de Catalunya 10, Barcelona 08002, on the hinge between the old town and the Eixample: the Barri Gòtic and Les Rambles start on one side of the square, Passeig de Gràcia, Casa Batlló and La Pedrera on the other. It is rated five stars, and membership of the Preferred Legend Collection opens up the I Prefer programme’s benefits.

Two things to keep in mind. Opening rates have not been disclosed by the group, and in a city where rooftops fill fast, La Pajarera is worth booking at the same time as the room if you plan to eat there.