Religious, Spiritual sights in Barcelona
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Sinagoga Maj14
When an Argentine investor bought a run-down electrician’s store with an eye to converting it into central Barcelona’s umpteenth bar, he could hardly have known he had stumbled onto the remains of what could be the city’s main medieval synagogue (some historians cast doubt on the claim). Remnants of medieval and Roman-era walls remain in the small vaulted space that you enter from the street. Also remaining are tanners’ wells installed in the 15th century. The second chamber has been spruced up for use as a synagogue. A remnant of late-Roman-era wall here, given its orientation facing Jerusalem, has led some to speculate that there was a synagogue here even in Roman times…
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Església de Sants Just I Pastor
This somewhat neglected, single-nave church, with chapels on either side of the buttressing, was built in 1342 in Catalan Gothic style on what is reputedly the site of the oldest parish church in Barcelona. Inside, you can admire some fine stained-glass windows. In front of it, in a pretty little square that was used as a set (a smelly Parisian marketplace) in 2006 for Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, is what is claimed to be the city’s oldest Gothic fountain. On the morning of 11 September 1924, Antoni Gaudí was arrested as he attempted to enter the church from this square to attend Mass. In those days of the dictatorship of General Primo de Rivera, it took little to ru…
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La Catedral
Barcelona’s central place of worship presents a magnificent image. The richly decorated main (northwest) façade, laced with gargoyles and the stone intricacies you would expect of northern European Gothic, sets it quite apart from other churches in Barcelona. The façade was actually added in 1870, although it is based on a 1408 design. The rest of the building was built between 1298 and 1460. The other façades are sparse in decoration, and the octagonal, flat-roofed towers are a clear reminder that, even here, Catalan Gothic architectural principles prevailed.
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Església de Sant Pau del Camp
Back in the 9th century, when monks founded the monastery of Sant Pau del Camp (St Paul in the Fields), it was a good walk from the city gates amid fields and gardens. Today, the church and cloister, erected in the 12th century and partly surrounded by the trees of a small garden, are located on a fairly down-at-heel street and surrounded by dense inner-city housing. The doorway to the church bears rare Visigothic sculptural decoration, predating the Muslim invasion of Spain. Inside, the beautiful Romanesque cloister is the main reason for dropping by.
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Església de Sant Pere de les Puelles
Not a great deal remains of the original church or convent that has stood here since early medieval times. The church’s pre-Romanesque Greek-cross floor plan survives, as do some Corinthian columns beneath the 12th-century dome and a much-damaged Renaissance vault leading into a side chapel. It was around this church that the first settlement began to take place in La Ribera beyond the original city walls. In 985, a Muslim raiding force under Al-Mansur attacked Barcelona and largely destroyed the convent, killing or capturing the nuns.
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Església de la Puríssima Concepció i Assumpció de Nostra Senyora
One hardly expects to run into a medieval church on the grid pattern streets of the late-19th-century city extension, yet that is just what this is. Transferred stone by stone from the old centre in 1871–88, this 14th-century church has a pretty 16th-century cloister with a peaceful garden. Behind is a Romanesque-Gothic bell tower (11th to 16th century), moved from another old town church that didn’t survive, Església de Sant Miquel. This is one of a handful of such old churches shifted willy-nilly from their original locations to l’Eixample.
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Església de la Mercè
Raised in the 1760s on the site of its Gothic predecessor, the baroque Església de la Mercè is home to Barcelona’s most celebrated patron saint. It was badly damaged during the civil war. What remains is, however, quite a curiosity. The baroque facade facing the square contrasts with the Renaissance flank along Carrer Ample. The latter was actually moved here from another nearby church that was subsequently destroyed in the 1870s.
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Coro, La Catedral
In the middle of the central nave is the late-14th-century, exquisitely sculpted timber coro. The coats of arms on the stalls belong to members of the Barcelona chapter of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Emperor Carlos V presided over the order’s meeting here in 1519. Take the time to look at the workmanship up close – the Virgin Mary and Child depicted on the pulpit are especially fine.
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Església de Sant Miquel del Port
Finished in 1755, this sober baroque church was the first building completed in La Barceloneta. Built low so that the cannon in the then Ciutadella fort could fire over it if necessary, it bears images of St Michael (Miquel) and two other saints considered protectors of the Catalan fishing fleet: Sant Elm and Santa Maria de Cervelló.
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Església De Santa Anna
Starting life as a Romanesque chapel in the 12th century, this tranquil house of worship is set on a square of its own. The deliciously silent and cool Gothic cloister encloses a leafy garden and fountain.
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La Moreneta
Perched at Montserrat is a monastery and 12th-century chapel built to house La Moreneta, a statue found nearby and venerated by hundreds of thousands of people each year.
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