Església de Santa Maria del Mar

Lonely Planet review

Barcelona's most powerful and beguiling Gothic temple stands serenely amid the swirling crowds that daily invade the El Born area, once the heart of local commerce and now devoted to local diversion.

Built with, for the time, record-breaking alacrity (it took just 59 years), the church is remarkable for its architectural harmony. While many grand European churches betray several styles because they took so long to build, Santa Maria del Mar benefited aesthetically from the haste. The main body is made up of a central nave and two flanking aisles separated by slender octagonal pillars, creating an enormous sense of lateral space. Keep an eye out for music recitals here, often baroque and classical. The acoustics aren't the best, but the setting more than makes up for it. Just opposite the southern flank of the church an eternal flame burns brightly over an apparently anonymous sunken square. This was once El Fossar de les Moreres (the Mulberry Cemetery, named after the trees that once grew here), where Catalan resistance fighters were buried after the siege of Barcelona in 1714.