To speak of Ms. Rius is to delve into the fascinating biography of one of the most controversial and well-known figures in Barcelona's nightlife. Identified as Lydia Artigas Peña, her professional name was associated for decades with the world of prostitution in the Catalan capital and with a very specific and particular way of understanding marginal life, discreet yet deeply connected to the city's social history.
The notoriety of this fascinating character gained greater public relevance with the publication of the book "Mrs. Rius of Distracted Morality ." Written by journalist Julià Peiró in 2008, this book testifies to how this woman, who was a prostitute, eventually came to run some of the most famous brothels in Barcelona .
This article is dedicated to this sex worker, and later, madam. We will discuss her origins and the social and cultural evolution of the time. We will focus on the atmosphere of the hidden side of the Barrio Chino (Chinatown) and reveal some anecdotes and interesting facts about the biography and professional career of this historic figure in the sex industry in Barcelona.
Who is Mrs. Rius?
The figure of Mrs. Rius has usually been presented as that of a former prostitute from Barcelona who, over time, came to manage her own prostitution business.
If we delve into the internet, we will see how the name of this Barcelona madam appears linked to a long list of interviews, reports, chronicles and the aforementioned memoirs signed by Julià Peiró and that helped to make her a well-known woman beyond the private circles of the city of Barcelona in which her life had developed.
Born on December 31, 1938, Lydia Artigas began working as a prostitute at a very young age, but over time she was able to manage and organize her own brothel in Barcelona , which allowed her to meet some famous people. She spoke about them in some of the many interviews she gave for the publication of *La sra. Rius de moral distraída* (Mrs. Rius of Distracted Morality) , and we will discuss some of these interviews in another section of this article.
Mrs. Rius and the history of Barcelona's Chinatown
It's impossible to talk about this legendary sex worker without mentioning Barcelona's old Chinatown . Now part of the Raval district, the name of this Barcelona neighborhood was associated with marginalization for much of the 20th century.
To speak of the Barrio Chino was to speak of poverty, crime, nightlife, and prostitution. All of this was concentrated in an area bordered by Las Ramblas, Paral·lel, Hospital Street, and the Atarazanas area. In other words: the area of the present-day Raval closest to the port.
This port area, once a marginalized neighborhood, was first given the name Barrio Chino (Chinatown) in 1925. It appeared in the first issue of a weekly magazine called El Escándalo , and the person responsible for this "christening" was the journalist and playwright Francisco Madrid. By using this term, Madrid was comparing Barcelona's Fifth District to New York's Chinatown. Both, despite their differences, encompassed the city's underbelly.
Among the myths associated with this neighborhood, the one that stood out was that you could explore it by hopping from brothel to brothel. It's no coincidence that at the beginning of the 20th century, Barcelona was considered the European city with the most brothels. The existence of houses of prostitution like Madame Petit, which was, at the time, the most famous and luxurious in the city, lent credence to that myth and its reputation.
Anyone with a good memory will still recall the many prostitutes in the Barrio Chino (Chinatown ) who, stationed on the streets and corners of the neighborhood, waited for a client to claim them. Those who knew Barcelona before the 1992 hurricane surely know what we're talking about.
Without understanding that environment, we cannot understand a figure like Mrs. Rius. Barcelona, in the early 1950s, had not yet recovered from the devastation of the Civil War. The postwar period dragged on almost agonizingly, and economic recovery was still to come. In an environment where poverty and need were commonplace, prostitution was a career option for many women. For Lydia Artigas, it was. At that time, she was not yet Mrs. Rius, but the myth was beginning to take shape, and her name would become key to understanding high-class prostitution in Barcelona .
Why Mrs. Rius continues to generate interest
Mrs. Rius is now around 90 years old. Why does she continue to generate interest? There could be several reasons. On the one hand, real-life figures who embody or have been in contact with the less visible side of a city or society always exert a strong attraction on those who wish to understand that city or society in depth.
On the other hand, this woman's story unfolds in an area where personal testimony, urban legend, and the portrait of a city where public morality and the private lives of some of its inhabitants were very different converge.
In other words, in Barcelona during the Eucharistic Congress, a city whose streets were filled with priests and which was a massive public demonstration of Catholic faith, there were quite a few husbands who, momentarily setting aside their image of dignity and apparent honor, went to have a fling in one of the city's more or less well-known brothels. Because, as someone once said, sex is inevitable, and the desire to enjoy it is one of the most powerful stimuli for human beings.
Furthermore, the figure of Mrs. Rius, as seen in interviews, reports and popular science pieces, is that of a woman who speaks her mind, someone who speaks frankly about a world that usually remains hidden and is therefore very attractive.
The direct and uninhibited way this former Barcelona madam explains anecdotes and experiences from her professional life has contributed to many people seeking her out not only to satisfy their morbid curiosity, but also to better understand how certain social, economic, and sexual codes worked in Barcelona during those years.
When discussing all of this, the professional nickname of Lydia Artigas combines a real person with a symbol. That's why, even today, there are still many internet searches from users wanting to know who Ms. Rius was or what Ms. Rius did .
To that question, we can briefly answer that she was a prostitute in Barcelona who, over the years, opened her own brothel and employed other sex workers, but that certainly won't be enough to understand why Ms. Rius remains a legend even today. To grasp her mythical status, we need to know some of the things she's said in various interviews about some of her brothel's clients. Among them were film figures like Orson Welles, artists like Salvador Dalí, and writers like Camilo José Cela. We'll discuss some of these anecdotes told by Ms. Rius in the next section.
Professional anecdotes from the life of Mrs. Rius
Ms. Rius has said in interviews that the profession of madam, her profession for several decades, is based especially on trust and integrity. She learned this, before opening her own establishment, in a prestigious brothel in Barcelona located on Sant Màrius Street, in the Sant Gervasi district.
Having gained that prestige, a discreet brothel or a discreet prostitute can have among its clients famous personalities such as those we have mentioned and about whom the protagonist of our article has told juicy anecdotes.
For example, Ms. Rius has recounted on several occasions that she met film director Orson Welles while he was filming Chimes at Midnight . Filmed between 1964 and 1965, Ms. Rius was 26 years old at the time. In other words, she must have been at the peak of her physical beauty. She has stated in interviews that she has always remembered Rita Hayworth's husband as a robust-looking man, a heavy smoker, and with a very handsome voice.
As for Salvador Dalí , the notorious pimp, at the time of her statements, did not have a particularly fond memory of him. Rius maintains in her interviews that the painter from Figueres behaved with a great air of superiority and that he had extravagant habits (he would put fried eggs on some girls' buttocks or make them bathe in a pool of white beans). For Rius, Dalí was a man who did not love women and whose relationship with his wife, Gala, could well be described as a "farce."
Rius recounted that, in her encounters with Nobel Prize-winning author Camilo José Cela , the Galician writer "simply masturbated" while she and other women broke plates. That, Rius claimed, was what excited him.
According to the madam herself, other famous people also passed through Mrs. Rius's brothel, such as King Faisal of Saudi Arabia, the French actor Jean Paul Belmondo , as well as the cream of Barcelona society.
Discreet and wise, Mrs. Rius holds many secrets and many names. Hers continues to attract attention because it symbolizes and encapsulates a fascinating (albeit uncomfortable) part of Barcelona's social history. Her figure evokes the intense biography of a real woman, but also an era marked by double standards and a nightlife that became marginal (albeit unrestrained) in certain areas of the city, such as the Barrio Chino (Chinatown). Beyond the street prostitution practiced there, Mrs. Rius's name is, and will forever remain, associated with a high-class prostitution consumed for decades by the most privileged strata of Barcelona society.
