The Barcelona Cathedral: A Stunning Example of Gothic Architecture

Share Tweet Share Share Share Save Mail

#mc_embed_signup{background:#fff; clear:left; font:14px Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; } /* Add your own Mailchimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block. We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. */

Subscribe to our mailing list

* indicates required

Email Address *

First Name

Last Name

Birthday

/ ( mm / dd )

Joined

(function($) {window.fnames = new Array(); window.ftypes = new Array();fnames[0]='EMAIL';ftypes[0]='email';fnames[1]='FNAME';ftypes[1]='text';fnames[2]='LNAME';ftypes[2]='text';fnames[3]='ADDRESS';ftypes[3]='address';fnames[4]='PHONE';ftypes[4]='phone';fnames[5]='BIRTHDAY';ftypes[5]='birthday';fnames[6]='MMERGE6';ftypes[6]='text';}(jQuery));var $mcj = jQuery.noConflict(true);

Continuing with my series of photographs (finally!) from the most epic European dad-daughter trip of (probably?) our lifetime –
29 days from December 2023 to January 2024 via planes, trains and automobiles.

A few posts back, I reminisced about the end of our 29 day European vacation and how we ended up (and unbeknownst to us) saving the best for last – our final five days being spent in Barcelona. Today’s post, which will be the last in this series, looks back on our visit to the Barcelona Cathedral and its patron saint, the martyred Eulàlia.

Barcelona Cathedral

The official name of the Barcelona Cathedral is Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia, meaning Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulàlia, a 13-year-old Roman Christian girl and patron of the cathedral. The name “La Seu” refers more to the position of the church. La Seu roughly means headquarters or headquarters, meaning the seat of the bishop.

Eulàlia (c. 289 – February 12, 303), the co-patron saint of Barcelona, was believed to be a 13-year-old Roman Christian virgin who was martyred in Barcelona during the persecution of Christians in the reign of emperor Diocletian. She was the daughter of a noble family that lived near the city of Barcelona who publicly confronted the local prefect, Decià, for the persecution of Christians. This level of “wokeness” didn’t sit well with Decià.

Even when threatened with torture, which she would be spared of if only she were to offer a bit of salt and incense as a sacrifice to the pagan gods, Eulàlia was defiant. So Decià subjected her to 13 tortures, one for every year of her life. One such torture was being placed in a barrel full of sharp objects and rolled down a street in Barcelona’s Jewish quarter (El Call) that’s still known today as La Baixada de Santa Eulàlia (Eulàlia’s decent). You might catch someone going up and down this street 13 times to commemorate her torment on February 12, the official Dia de Santa Eulàlia.

Her tortures culminated in her crucifixion on an X-shaped cross. When she finally passed, it’s said a white dove was seen to come forth from her mouth and ascend into heaven. Another story claims that her lifeless naked body was covered by a miraculous snowfall in mid-spring, covering the public square.

The path to martyrdom is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men, no? And things usually get pretty messy. But I digress…

The Barcelona Cathedral was built over six centuries. Funded by donations from the medieval brotherhoods and guilds, the building work in Santa Creu commenced in 1298, on consecrated ground which was the former site of a 4th-century early-Christian basilica, which had been destroyed by the troops of the general of the Andalusian caliphate of Al-Mansur in the 10th century.

The actual cathedral was already completed in 1448. But, of course, the appearance of the church has been changed over the centuries through conversions and additions. The last major conversion was completed in 1913, when Spanish architect Josep O. Mestres completed the Neo-Gothic facade, following the original plans made by Carles Galtés de Ruan, also known as master Carlí, who traveled to Barcelona to work on the cathedral in 1408.

The architectural design of the Barcelona Cathedral consist of the regional style of Catalan Gothic, which does not seek to create towering buildings but to balance the dimensions of the structure. The Barcelona Cathedral is 305 feet long, 131 feet wide, and 92 feet high at the central nave. Each bell tower of the cathedral is 177 feet in height. The tallest point of the cathedral reaches over 229 feet tall at the peak of the cimborio.

The construction of the cathedral’s choir stalls in the middle of the nave began in 1390 by order of Bishop Raymund d’Escales. The stalls are among the most important Gothic sculptural works in Catalonia. This detail of the cathedral was also built over a long period of time and added to again and again.

At the end of the 15th century, German sculptor Michael Lochner and his student Johan Friedrich created the canopies and battlements. The commemorative plaques were painted by Juan de Borgoña in 1517-18. They refer to the Knights of the Order of the Golden Fleece, who were called to Barcelona in 1519.

There are 215 vault keys inside the Cathedral, dating back to the 14th and 15th centuries. After being restored in 1970, the keys were discovered to be polychrome. The vault keys of the central nave include many symbols including Christ being crucified with the Virgin and St. John by his side.

Beneath the High Altar is the crypt of Saint Eulàlia. The magnificent Gothic tomb incorporates Romanesque elements from other sources, such as the bases and capitals holding up the structure of the polychromed marble sarcophagus solemnly inaugurated in 1339. The sculptor is known to have come from the region of Pisa.

In 1327, the bishop of Barcelona, Poncio de Gualba, contracted the services of an artist from Pisa to embellish the Cathedral that was being built during the first decades of the 14th century. There is also evidence that Luppo di Francesco was in Barcelona between 1330 and 1340. The style of the sarcophagus coincides completely with other works by that artist at the Cathedral in Pisa.

The organ is located under the bell tower in the nave, in the gallery above the Sant Ivo entrance. The artistically, liturgically and historically significant object was built from 1537 to 1539. From 1985 to 1994 it was extensively restored. Since 1990 there has been an organ concert once a month. The organ also accompanies the Eucharistic celebrations and the services.

The cathedral’s rooftop features a fantastic view over the city’s historic Gothic Quarter…

The cloister’s garden is home to 13 white geese that are supposed to symbolize the age of Eulàlia when she suffered her martyrdom. Moreover, their “quacking” was a good deterrent against unwanted intruders and thieves.