Barcelona's Roman temple dedicated to Augustus was located at the top of Mount Taber, and part of its remains were embedded in medieval constructions. In 1903 Domènech renovated the building as the headquarters of the Centre Excursionista de Catalunya.
Despite several studies of the temple, many elements were lost in the rubble of the old houses at the end of the 19th century. In 1879, an entire column was saved and displayed in the Plaça del Rei.
Three other columns were found inside the medieval building that housed the old cathedral canons' manor house, embedded between several slabs. This building was rented in 1878 by the Associació Catalana d'Excursions Científiques (Catalan Association of Scientific Excursions), now known as the Centre Excursionista de Catalunya.
In 1902, the publisher Ramon de Montaner, Lluís Domènech's uncle, bought the entire building. His initial intention was to take the columns and integrate them into the Castle of Santa Florentina. But they finally changed his mind, and he commissioned his nephew to refurbish the building as the headquarters of the Centre Excursionista de Catalunya.
The intervention consisted mainly of remodelling the interior of the building to leave the Roman columns exposed, fully visible in an interior courtyard protected by a skylight. A new staircase was built to access the main floor and a gallery to connect the two sides of the courtyard, reinterpreting the Gothic style.
The opening of large windows and the replacement of the stone railings with light metallic elements was done with the aim of giving greater visibility to the columns from inside the rooms.
Domènech left the space prepared for the fourth column found, which was on display in the Plaça del Rei, but bureaucracy did not allow it to be repositioned. Finally, in 1956, when Barcelona City Council had already bought the building, it was moved.
It is still the headquarters of the CEC today.
