Palau Mercaders (Sant Lluc Artists' Circle)

This residential palace, medieval in origin, took its present form through successive works during the 17th and 18th centuries. Towards the end of the 18th century, the merging of three adjacent properties prompted alterations that defined its final layout. Since 2009 it has served as the headquarters of the Cercle Artístic de Sant Lluc. The building unfolds across a ground floor, a piano nobile and two upper floors, with façades on both Carrer Mercaders and Plaça de les Beates. The basket-arch portal — wide enough to admit carriages — leads into an inner courtyard where the staircase to the piano nobile is sheltered by a portico of rampant arches on Tuscan columns. At the entrance, a relief by Mariano Andrés Vilella depicts a peasant ploughing with a donkey.