L’Església Romànica

Monestir Romànic de Sant Miquel
Built: 1929
Founded: 1928
Function: Chapel
Address: Marquès de Comillas s/n

The Romanesque Monastery of St. Michael is one of those instances where the title of the building is just as complete a fabrication as the building itself. While the chapel of the building is dedicated to St. Michael, the structure is neither from the Romanesque period, nor was it ever an actual monastery. However, it is indeed a beautiful building, popular with locals and tourists alike, and a place to step away from the myriad of museums and entertainment venues on surrounding Montjuic in order to pray, or to collect oneself and reflect.

In 1929 Barcelona hosted the Universal Exposition, one of those World’s Fair-type events popular from the mid-19th to the mid-20th century designed to draw in tourists, politicans and business leaders, and thereby add to the local economy. The site for the fair was the mountain of Montjuic, the mountain which rises unexpectedly out of the city harbor and then falls back into the sea again. Holding the event in 1929 was not such a smart thing to do of course, since the worldwide stock market crash that year marked the arrival of the Great Depression. Nevertheless, a number of iconic and important buildings went up in Barcelona for the fair, including the Palau Nacional (now the National Art Museum), and Mies van der Rohe’s seminal German Pavilion, which had a profound impact not only on the direction of modern architecture but furniture and interior design as well: the iconic Barcelona chair, found in every hipster hotel and lounge around the world, was created for this structure.

Along more traditional lines, the great Catalan architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch came up with the concept of the “Poble Espanyol” or “Spanish Village” to be built on the site of the fair, which would allow visitors to take an architectural walking tour around the many different regional styles of architecture in Spain. Some critics have dismissed this as a kind of pre-Disney Epcot Center, but Puig i Cadafalch and the other architects who worked on the project took care to study details of moldings, balustrades, roof lines, sculptural decoration, paving stones, and so on. One does feel, in wandering about the complex, that one has suddenly come across a flower-garlanded, whitewashed street and patio in Andalusia, or a somewhat heavy and forbidding square in Old Castile.

Architects Francesc Folguera and Ramon Reventós, aided by art critic Miquel Utrillo and painter Xavier Nogués, developed the plan for the village along the lines Puig i Cadafalch had come up with. This was not going to be an exuberant, innovative design, for those times of experimental architecture had, by this point, more or less come to an end in Barcelona. Gaudí and Domènech i Montaner, the other two greats from Barcelona’s exuberant architectural period of 1880-1920, had died only a couple of years before, and despite having learned from them both, Puig i Cadafalch and those who followed him set off to explore more traditional, monumental forms of architecture, mixing the Romanesque with the Baroque to create imposing churches and public buildings of heavy stone rather than sparkling glass and mosaic.

The structure which dominates the entire complex is the Catalan-style building known as the Romanesque Monastery of St. Michael. Appropriately enough, it is not located in the nucleus of the village itself, but set on a hill inside the grounds, overlooking the complex, surrounded by trees and wildflowers. The building, oftentimes simply referred to as the “L’Església Romànica” or “The Romanesque Church”, is a hybrid of various Romanesque structures built during the Romanesque period of 1000-1200 around Catalonia, somewhat similar to the way in which The Cloisters museum of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City was created from elements taken from medieval monasteries or re-created in imitation of them.

The basic design for the building was taken from that of the Monastery of St. Sebastian in the town of Bages, outside of Barcelona. From the same town, the design of the cloister of the Monastery of St. Benedict was copied for the structure at the Poble Espanyol. The bell tower is a copy of the church tower in the town of Taradell in the Pyrenees, while the portal is copied from that of a monastery in the province of Girona, along the French border.

The entire thing is certainly built to last, with careful attention to detail, but what may stun the visitor is that the entire complex, including the mock-monastery and all of the buildings in the village, were only supposed to last for six months! The construction methods employed were so expert that, along with proper maintenance and upkeep, these supposedly temporary structures are now nearing their first century of age. (Who can predict as much for what the Cathedral of Los Angeles California will look like, one hundred years from now?)

Mass is not celebrated at the chapel regularly, in our increasingly secular times, so the Blessed Sacrament is not reserved here. If you are lucky, you may be able to attend mass in the chapel during certain times of the year: for example, the mass and blessing of palms on Palm Sunday is very popular with children, who can then play in the gardens after mass and picnic. In addition, if you bring your own palm frond – and Catalan palm fronds are very elaborately woven and decorated things that look more like medieval staves, then you get into the amusement park for free.

The Archdiocese continues to hold administrative offices in the structure for very good reason however, as although regular masses are not held here, from its opening the chapel quickly became, and remains to this day, a popular site for nuptial masses. This stems in part due to its photogenic nature, with reproductions of Romanesque wall frescoes, tranquil cloisters, and lush grounds. It is also due to the smaller scale of the structure, since the chapel is small enough to seat around 100 people, and its bucolic yet urban location overlooking the city (as well as having a separate entrance from the rest of the theme park), gives ease of access to both public transportation and parking for automobiles at the site.

Here we see some exterior shots of the building:

Here is the interior, obviously decorated for a wedding:

And finally the cloister:

Mare de Déu dels Àngels

Església de la Mare de Déu dels Àngels
Built: 1942-1955
Founded: Before 1497
Function: Parish church
Address: Balmes 78

The present parish church dedicated to Our Lady of the Angels is the ecclesiastical descendant of the earlier Dominican Convent of Our Lady of the Angels which I have written about previously. After the expulsion of the Dominican Nuns in 1906, the parish which had been created for the lay community at the monastic church, in essence, ceased to exist for a period of time, with the members of the congregation worshiping at the then-extant church of St. Anthony Abbott (also the topic of a previous entry.)

In 1932 the parish was formally reconstituted at its present location by redrawing its territorial boundaries outside of the old city and moving it into the Eixample, or expansion district which was built between the mid-19th century and the lead-up to the Spanish Civil War. While the parish was gathering funds for building a new church, they shared the nearby Basilica of the Immaculate Conception. The interruption of the Civil War meant that the new church did not begin construction until 1942, but this also meant that the parish was able to avoid the ravages suffered by other congregations as a result of Leftist anti-Catholicism during the 1936-1938 period.

The building was designed by Barcelona architect Josep Danés i Torras, and was completed in 1955, the year of his death. Decoration of the interior continued over the next twenty years, but remained faithful to his original vision. It was built in an almost Scandinavian Romanesque-Art Moderne style, though still traditional in its elements, making it seem like it would be more at home in Stockholm or Oslo than in sunny, Mediterranean Barcelona. While its interior is very beautiful, it is certainly one of the most unusual parish churches, architecturally speaking, in the city today.

Here we can see the exterior of the church:

Here are some shots of the interior:

And here is the statue of Our Lady of the Angels which is set above the high altar:

L’Esperança

Capella de la Mare de Déu de l’Esperança
Built: 18th Century
Founded: Before 1600
Function: Parish church; former convent chapel
Address: Palma de Sant Just, 4

The small Baroque chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Hope in the old, Gothic Quarter of Barcelona is located close to the Basilica of Saints Justus and Pastor, and has become a location popular with classical musicians for its remarkable acoustics. The chapel was part of a larger convent of the same name, about which I have been able to find very little information, which was torn down in the mid-19th century. After this, a smaller establishment to house elderly, retired sisters was built, and which still stands today. Although there are still some sisters in the convent, much of that residence is now rented out for use as a dormitory for female university students.

The Feast of Our Lady of Hope was, until changes were made to the Latin calendar, celebrated locally in Barcelona on December 18th. Popular belief was that if an expectant mother would visit this little chapel to pray the rosary every day between December 18th and Christmas, that Our Lady would protect the mother and child during delivery. However, this was not the usual rosary containing fifty Hail Marys. Instead of the Hail Mary, the expectant mother would recite the following prayer (rough translation, mine):

The chapel was also the starting point for an ancient Advent custom in the city, which ended in the mid-to-late 19th century. On each of the four Sundays before Christmas, a procession of penitents dressed in black would emerge from the chapel and visit four of the major churches of the Gothic Quarter: the Basilicas of Santa Maria del Mar, Santa Maria del Pi, and Sants Just I Pastor, as well as the church of the Holy Trinity monastery (now the parish church of Sant Jaume.) In the course of the procession they would chant the more penitential of the Psalms from the Divine Office, as well as taking popular songs and changing the words to Advent or penitential themes.

During the Civil War, the chapel initially escaped damage from the Leftists because in 1936 the nuns were moved out, and the local government turned the convent into its document archive. And indeed, many of the records from the Archdiocese, the Cathedral, and the Monastery of Montserrat were kept here as well. However this time it was the Conservatives who would damage the building. Toward the end of 1938, as Franco’s troops neared the city, the documents archived at the convent were moved again; the convent was then mostly destroyed by a bomb dropped by the Franquist forces, although much of the chapel remained intact.

Here we can see an exterior view of the chapel:

And here is the interior as shown during a concert [click on the image to see it larger], along with a close-up of the statue of Our Lady of Hope which stands above the main altar:

Divina Providència

Monestir de la Mare de Déu de Divina Providència
Built: 1950-1953
Founded: 1834
Function: Monastic church
Address: Albigesos 6

The Monastery of Our Lady of Divine Providence is a mid-twentieth century structure whose architecture – or at least, what one can see of it – hearkens back to earlier times and, in particular, references Assisi on a smaller scale. This is the lesser of the two Poor Clares convents currently existing in Barcelona (the greater being that of the Royal Monastery of Santa Maria de Pedralbes, not far away.) It was founded in 1834 as a contemplative community dedicated to reviving the old or “primitive” rule of St. Clare of Assisi. Teresa Arguyol i Fontseca, the foundress of the convent, also founded a school for girls and went on to found two additional convents dedicated to Our Lady of Divine Providence in the nearby cities of Badalona and Mataró.

In 1936, the old convent was torched and completely destroyed by the Leftists at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Because the destruction was so complete, the nuns decided to move out of central Gràcia and up into the then-more northern limits of the city, in the hilly area known as El Putxet. The new church and monastic complex was completed in 1953, and the nuns remain in cloister there today.

One of the nuns in residence at the monastery (sometimes she is incorrectly referred to as the foundress) was Coloma Antònia Martí Valls (1860-1899), renowned for her personal sanctity. Her case was presented to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in 1956 by the Archdiocese. In 1996 she was designated a “Servant of God”, and the cause for raising her to the status of “Venerable” is still being investigated.

Sadly, despite exhaustive efforts I have not been able to locate any images of the interior of either the church or the convent, although I know that the public can visit and attend mass here. This is another example of how, unfortunately, religious communities and parishes in Barcelona are not taking full advantage of the possibilities of modern means of communication. Still, it will give me an excuse to drop by on my next visit to the city and see what I can snap for myself.

Sant Eugeni

Església de Sant Eugeni I Papa
Built: 1880-1883
Founded: 1878
Function: Parish church; former hospital chapel
Address: Londres 40

The present Neo-Romanesque parish church dedicated to St. Eugenius I, Pope from 654-657 A.D., was originally the chapel for the Hospital of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The hospital was founded in 1878 by a group of well-to-do Catholic ladies to provide medical care for the poor of the city, free of cost. The institution expanded multiple times in the following decades, until in 1933 it was taken over by the secular Autonomous University of Barcelona. The hospital itself is still in existence today, and is the largest private hospital in the city. In addition to providing medical services it is also the location for the Autonomous University’s medical school.

With the increasing expansion and modernization of the hospital complex next door, the chapel no longer served much of a purpose and it was decided that it should be made independent of the faculty. The parish was formally created in 1945, and the chapel given to it by the Archdiocese. The dedication of the parish to St. Eugenius was made in honor of Pope Pius XII, who was the Pontiff at the time and whose given name was Eugenio Pacelli.

The chapel itself was designed by Jeroni Granell i Barrera, who also designed the original buildings of the hospital. Fortunately, the former hospital chapel did not suffer any damage during the Leftist uprisings of the 20th century, including the Civil War, probably because it was attached to a hospital, and hospitals were needed by both sides to treat the wounded. As a result, much of its charming exterior remains the same.

Here we see the exterior of the church:

And here we see some shots of the interior, decorated for Christmas:

Ermita de Santa Creu d’Olorda

Ermita de Santa Creu d’Olorda
Built: Between 800 – 1000 A.D., with later additions
Founded: Before 986 A.D.
Function: Chapel
Address: Carretera de Sanson s/n

The Hermitage of the Holy Cross in Olorda, a settlement located in the Collserola Mountains which ring the city of Barcelona, is of very ancient and somewhat mysterious origin. Much of the present building is believed to date from between 800-1000 A.D. Subsequent additions to the building in later centuries, as well as the destruction of the Civil War, have had an impact on the appearance of the present structure.

The first documentary evidence for the existence of a chapel on this site is dated 1032 A.D., although the settlement around it is known from an even earlier document. In the year 986 A.D. King Lothar (941-986 A.D.) of the Franks deeded this land to the Monastery of Sant Cugat, just over the other side of the mountain from the former village of Olorda. This fact, in combination with the architectural style of the building leads historians to believe that the hermitage was probably already of considerable age at the time the Frankish King willed the land to the Benedictines.

The present bell tower was added around 1300, and enlarged in the 17th century when a Renaissance front portal was added to the facade. It remained a popular pilgrimage site, but as to when the last hermit was in residence here, no one is quite certain. In the 19th century with the development of the train and tram lines, the area began to grow in population, and the chapel came under the administration of larger parishes nearby, in turn.

By 1915 the chapel came under the authority of the parish of Saint Vincent, the main church in the former village of Sarrià, now one of the more exclusive northern residential districts of Barcelona and under which it remains today. Given its somewhat remote location, it became a popular excursion and picnic post, particularly on religious feast days, when the youth from the local parishes would come here to celebrate mass and participate in games and other activities. Because this was never a highly populated area, following a significant amount of destruction during the Civil War in 1936, the chapel languished for a considerable period of time.

Recently, I am pleased to say, interest in this ancient chapel has seen an increase, and Saint Vincent and two of the other northern parishes have announced that beginning on September 14, 2010, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, appropriately enough, a mass will once again be held in the ancient chapel after many years of remaining closed. If interest is shown, the other parishes will try to see if they can provide sufficient staff to continue to celebrate the mass at the Hermitage on a regular basis.

Here we see a view of the complex in the mountains:

Here we can see some views of the exterior, including the tree-shaded picnic area:

Here is a view of the interior, which was white-washed after the destruction of the Civil War:

And here we can see the throngs of picnic-makers from the 1920′s, visiting the hermitage on a Festival Day:

Sagrat Cor

Església del Sagrat Cor de Jesus
Built: 1883-1889
Founded: 1881
Function: Parish church/school chapel
Address: Casp 27

The Jesuits have always had a close historical attachment to Catalonia, since St. Ignatius of Loyola came to the holy mountain monastery of Our Lady of Montserrat and renounced his secular life in favor of a life of service to God. Indeed, he penned his Spiritual Exercises in the city of Mataró, not far from Barcelona. While the Betlem church on the Ramblas is the largest and most famous of the Jesuit churches in the city, the magnificent church the Jesuits built in the 19th century to the Sacred Heart of Jesus holds a great relic of St. Ignatius’ conversion, as will be explained below.

The domed Sacred Heart or “Sagrat Cor” church on Carrer del Casp should not be confused with the Basilica of the Sacred Heart atop the mountain of Tibidabo, built with the encouragement of St. John Bosco. That structure was intended to be an expiatory temple and pilgrimage site. Rather this Neo-Byzantine church, along with the attached school and the Jesuit residence were a collaborative effort between architects Joan Martorell Montells and Camil Oliveras i Gensana at a time when Barcelona’s residential population was expanding exponentially and needed new Catholic schools and parishes.

Sagrat Cor is one of the very few Barcelona churches that survived anti-Catholic destruction by Leftists during the Civil War in the 1930′s, retaining its original, very richly decorated interior. This reason alone would make it worthy of pilgrimage, particularly among those interested in the more eclectic styles of 19th century architecture and design. Although based in part on Byzantine models, the design also has significant elements of Romanesque and Gothic architecture.

When St. Ignatius made his pilgrimage to Montserrat in 1522, as a token of his conversion he left behind his sword before the image of Our Lady of Montserrat. The sword was preserved at the monastery for many years, until it was given to the Jesuits in 1907. It was then subsequently placed into a bronze and crystal reliquary, and set into the altar dedicated to St. Ignatius inside this church, just below the statue of the great Basque saint. This is such an important piece of Jesuit and indeed of world history, as a result of what St. Ignatius’ conversion brought about, that it is surprising that the presence of this amazing relic at this church is not better known.

Here we see some views of the exterior of the church:

Here is the jaw-droppingly decorated interior, looking toward the high altar:

Here is the interior of the dome – an instance where the interior of the dome is infinitely superior to the exterior structure:

And here is the side altar of St. Ignatius Loyola, with the reliquary containing his sword visible below the feet of the statue: