Wrestling, politics and a lion in a shop window: the incredible story of Vicenç Febrer

BarcelonaSome time ago, Barcelona City Council made a fortune with a campaign to promote local commerce that said: "There's everything in the neighbourhood." In the case of Sants, this slogan became literal. At least between the 60s and 70s, when in one of the shop windows of one of the emblematic shops in the neighbourhood there was even a live lion. The owner of the shop and the beast and the protagonist of this story was Vicenç Febrer.

A quick brief overview of his life will serve to introduce Febrero, a peculiar figure. Car and motorbike salesman. Boxer. Spanish wrestling champion. Passionate about his neighbourhood to the point of becoming a councillor for Sants. Lover of exotic animals. His lion, Vicentet, was for years one of the great attractions of the neighbourhood. From the Automóviles Febrero store, on Calle Vallespir 39, he delighted the younger neighbors, who often came hand in hand with their parents to admire him from the sidewalk.

One of his two daughters, Maria Febrer, recalls the story in conversation with the ARA. From another emblematic shop in the neighbourhood – the century-old Celler Gelida, now run by Vicenç Febrer's grandchildren – she explains that the lion was a gift that had been given to her father from Angola, where he had once boxed. He arrived in Barcelona around the 1960s as a puppy with his teeth and claws clenched. She, who was little at the time, admits that he scared her a bit, but she remembers seeing her grandmother breastfeeding him with a bottle.

Vicentet, as Febrero called the lion, was soon known throughout the neighbourhood. Even today, the oldest residents of Sants remember him. Everyone has some anecdote. Many visited him with their parents or after school. Some saw him parade in the Tres Tombs. Others say they saw Vicente enter the cage and take photos of himself shirtless, to the delight of the little ones. Some even saw him water-skiing with the lion in his arms. The Febrer family's extensive photo album bears witness to this.

However, over time the lion left the shop window –among other things, because of the complaints that its nocturnal roars generated among the neighbours– and went to sleep in the trailer of a truck that was parked at night in an underground floor of a garage on Avenida Josep Tarradellas. When the animal grew older, Febrero took him to the Barcelona Zoo, taking advantage of the friendship he had with the vet, and Vicentet ended his days there. Maria Febrer explains that there were two Vicentets: when the first one grew older and went to the Zoo, another cub was sent from Angola to Vicenç Febrer who also lived with him until he later ended up in the zoo.

From wrestling champion to councillor

But before that, Vicentet would still have time to be the mascot of the electoral campaign with which Vicenç Febrer managed to be elected councillor for Sants in the Barcelona City Council in 1970. An image of him presided over the leaflets with which Febrer asked his neighbours for their vote, promising to do "everything for Sants, Hostafrancs, la Borde". Among the ten promises was the creation of children's parks, hostels for retirees, schools, libraries, free gyms for all residents of the district and the increase in the service of night watchmen and security guards and the improvement of cleaning. Febrer obtained the position of councillor.

Already in office, he did not abandon his great passion: sport. To the point that he came to dispute the world heavyweight title in the wrestling modality with the South American champion Conde Maximiliano. In an interview published then in Sports World, said that the City Hall was "the most difficult thing in the rings" and that the mayor, Josep Maria Socías Humbert, supported him competing despite being a councilor. In fact, he said that with the fight he wanted to help his district and, above all, the retired people in the neighborhood.

At that time Febrer was already approaching 50 years old, but he still maintained good physical shape and the lessons learned from when he was younger and had been one of the boxing figures of the city and one of the regulars at the morning shows held at the historic Gran Price. It was in those fights as a young man that he earned the nickname of Lion of Saints, with which he won the championships of Catalonia, Spain and the Angola tournament that would end up leading to the arrival of the lion Vicentet in Barcelona.

Although he died in August 1991 on a sailing trip, Vicenç Febrer's mark on Barcelona still lives on in the memories of the residents of Sants and, until a few years ago, also in a photo of him and Vicentet that was still hanging in the emblematic bar El Mundial, in the Ribera neighbourhood.