Ciutat Vella

Antònia, the biggest of the six bells that crown the octagonal belfry of the church of Santa Maria del Pi can be heard ringing out all around Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter. We can now take a closer look at the church of Santa Maria, which nestles between the picturesque squares, the Plaça del Pi and Plaça Sant Josep Oriol.

The church of Santa Maria del Pi was built between 1319 and 1391, in the purest Gothic style. It comprises a single nave, with side chapels between buttresses. The cross-vaulted ceiling gives a sense of monumental scale and height, as is often the case with Barcelona’s Gothic churches. Unfortunately, the stained-glass windows of the church of Santa Maria del Pi in Barcelona aren’t the original ones, nor is the large rose window, measuring 10 metres in diameter, which competes in size with one of the biggest in Europe: Nôtre Dame in Paris. The original windows were restored by Josep Maria Jujol after the Spanish Civil War. The tympanum over the main doorway of the Gothic church features the figure of the Virgin Mary flanked by two pine cones in tribute to the name of the church (pi is Catalan for pine tree)

It is said that a pine forest once stood on this site of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, and, indeed, a pine tree still stands in front of the church. At the side of the church, the Ave Maria doorway features some Romanesque elements of a church which once stood on the same site. The church of Santa Maria del Pi in Barcelona houses the remains of the most Barcelonian of saints, Sant Josep Oriol, who was a priest at this famous church.