“We are resisting with great difficulty in this small second-hand bookstore. If you can help us spread the word from time to time…”. This was the cry for help that Gessamí Catafau published on X (formerly Twitter) in May 2023. She is the owner of Llibreria del Palau, the historic business that for four decades has been selling old books and postcards right in front of the Palau de la Música, in the neighborhood of Sant Pere, Santa Caterina i la Ribera. Almost three years after the tweet, Catafau assures that the situation has worsened.
“I am here because I am at an age where I can no longer do anything else,” explains the 65-year-old shopkeeper. For now, she does not plan to close, unlike the rest of the businesses that were on this street 40 years ago, when she herself opened the bookstore for the first time. “I opened it and it seems I will also close it,” she adds. Catafau explains that she has been very disheartened for years because sales do not stop decreasing.
“It is a property that cannot be touched”
When he raised the bookstore's blind for the first time in 1986, the Palau de la Música was not open to the public as it is now; only pre-arranged visits were organized when there were enough people interested in seeing it inside. Then, Catafau was 24 years old and took over from his father, who a few months earlier had rented the ground floor of number 6 of Sant Pere Més Alt street. Although in its origins the premises sold all kinds of tools, Catafau opted to open a bookstore.
The name, as the bookseller explains, not only responds to its location, it also refers to Antoni Palau i Dulcet, the renowned Catalan bookseller and bibliographer who lived from 1867 to 1954. Like Palau i Dulcet, Catafau is passionate about old books, encyclopedias, bibliographies, and postcards, which she collects from archives and specialized libraries and carefully arranges on the shelves and drawers of the shop. “When I rummage around here I still find things from 40 years ago,” she comments, laughing.
Although now postcards are their best-selling product, before they were not commercialized as they are now. Formerly, according to the shopkeeper, postcards with photographs of the Palau de la Música could only be found displayed inside the display cases of the Palau museum. In fact, she was the first one who was able to sell postcards of the work of Lluís Domènech i Montaner outside the modernist enclosure.
From the past of the premises (which for a good part of the 20th century had been a hairdresser's) only the wooden doorway is preserved, which is patrimonially protected, and a small cupboard to the left of the entrance, formerly intended for hairdressing tools and which Catafau restored to give it a new use. “It's a property that cannot be touched. Although I restored it, now I cannot take anything, because the entire block has patrimonial protection”, emphasizes Catafau.
“Luck of the tourist”
The Llibreria del Palau, located in one of the epicenters of Barcelona's gentrification, is maintained thanks to the tourists who walk through the streets of Ciutat Vella. “Lucky for the tourist, because the map, the old postcard, the vinyl… are no longer sold. Only the guiri buys it,” acknowledges the shopkeeper. In this sense, Catafau assures that “the difference is noticeable” between the postcards that can be found in the souvenir shops that open with increasing frequency in the city and the postcards she sells.
Despite the will to attract the local public, the shopkeeper explains that “no neighbors are left in the neighborhood”. Likewise, people who peek into the shop often ask for a new book or, simply, go in to take photographs of the interior and then leave without having bought anything. All in all, this has led Llibreria del Palau to face economic problems. “I only manage to cover expenses, there are days when I only make 20 euros, but I can't close because if I close I don't eat”, she laments.
On the other hand, the shopkeeper maintains an old rent contract that assures her the continuity of the business. "Before my rent was not low, but now it is compared to the rest. There are businesses that pay 6,000 euros in rent," she explains.
The aids to local commerce
Whenever Catafau explains his economic situation to friends and regular clients, many of them recommend that he expand the business through the Internet. However, he says that he already tried to modernize years ago, with a website and an online catalog, but confesses that the bet on digital did not work out well for him. “I spent a lot of money on this computer stuff and it didn't work,” he recalls.
Now, at a time when she assures that not many bookstores are left in Barcelona “because it is very expensive to maintain oneself”, the Llibreria del Palau moves forward despite the lack of aid from the administrations, according to her explanation. “They have no kind of affection for local commerce, they can fill their mouths, but nothing”, she states emphatically. Despite everything, the shopkeeper expresses that her fascination for the old is what makes her maintain her enthusiasm when she goes to work every day. “The advantage is that here there is always work, because the old book has to be taken care of and I go at my own pace”, she concludes.
