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The church of Santa María del Mar is a minor basilica located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. It was built between 1329 and 1383. Since June 3, 1931, it has been classified as an Asset of Cultural Interest.
Some current studies claim that it is built on an ancient amphitheater or Roman arenas.
The construction began in 1325, as attested by the tombstones at the
Las Moreras portal (which overlooks the Fossar de les Moreres) and the
contract established between the workers and the masters Ramón Despuig
and Berenguer de Montagut. A notable fact, which still It endures: it
is remembered that the work had to belong exclusively to the
parishioners of the port and Ribera area, the only material responsible
for the temple, since they were the ones who paid for it, either with
their money or with their work. This fact is in clear contrast to the
cathedral that was also being built at that same time and which was
associated with the monarchy, the nobility and the high clergy. It seems
that the entire population of La Ribera actively participated in the
construction, especially the dock unloaders, called galafates de la
Ribera or basaixos, who carried the enormous stones intended for the
construction of the church from the royal quarry of Montjuic and from
the beaches, where the boats that had brought them to Barcelona were, to
the Plaza del Borne itself, carrying them on their backs, one by one.
The main door of the church pays homage to the Bastaixos who helped in
its construction.
The walls, side chapels and façade were
completed around 1325. In 1330, as the fourth section of vaults was
about to be finished, the scaffolding caught fire and the stones
suffered significant damage. Finally, on November 3, 1345, the last part
of the vault was placed and on August 15 of the following year the first
mass was celebrated. The earthquake of 1428 caused the rose window to
collapse, causing some deaths due to the falling stones from it.
Although a contract was soon signed to build a new one in a flamboyant
style, which was finished in 1429 and the following year, its stained
glass windows were installed.
The interior of the church adapted over the centuries to changes in
architectural tastes and was provided with new elements.
At the
end of the 17th century, Viceroy George of Hesse-Darmstadt ordered the
construction of an elevated walkway that connected the viceregal palace
with the church: it ran along Malcuinat Street and crossed the current
Fossar de les Moreres. The construction of the passage was completed
with the so-called Royal Tribune, located on the epistle (right) side of
the main altar.
On August 1, 1708, Santa María del Mar was the
scene of the wedding between Archduke Charles of Austria and Isabel
Cristina of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.
In 1783, a new late-baroque
main altar was inaugurated consisting of twelve monolithic columns
centered around an image of the Virgin. It was the work of the architect
Deodat Casanovas and the sculptor Salvador Gurrí. In 1923 it received
the title of minor basilica, granted by Pope Pius XI.
Most of the
images and the baroque altar added during the following centuries were
burned during the fire of the temple on August 3 and 4, 1936. After
that, the Generalitat of Catalonia bricked up the entrances, with the
exception of the Borne one. After 1938, the vaults of the ambulatory
built in the 16th century to house the parish archive began to be
demolished, taking advantage of the great height. In 1960, the destroyed
stained glass windows began to be replaced.
The CRAI Reserve
Library of the University of Barcelona preserves, as a result of the
confiscation of the convents in 1835, some funds from Santa María del
Mar. Likewise, it has recorded and described examples of the property
marks that identified the convent to throughout its existence.
Seen from the outside, the building has a solid and robust
appearance, which does not convey what we will find inside. The
predominance of horizontal lines and wall sections without large
openings or decorations is absolute. Horizontality is continually
emphasized, marking it with moldings, cornices and flat surfaces, as if
to avoid an excessive sensation of height (despite being, in reality, a
fairly tall building). Overall, the building forms a compact block,
without wall sections at different depths (only those corresponding to
the naves) typical of European Gothic. This allows the lighting to
always be very flat, away from the play of light and shadows that can
occur in other churches.
The main façade is framed by the two
octagonal towers (a shape that will be repeated in the interior columns)
and the two powerful buttresses that frame the rose window and convey
the breadth of the interior vault. Horizontally we can see two sections,
clearly differentiated by the moldings and the galleries, while in the
towers the horizontality is underlined, once again, by the galleries
instead of pinnacles or spiers. The lower section is centered by the
portico and the upper section by the rose window, with the two
accompanying windows between the buttresses and the towers.
The
general austerity is even more evident on the sides, formed by a flat
wall without decoration that closes the space between the buttresses and
allows the presence of interior chapels. The conception is very
different from the graceful buttresses of French Gothic, which were
never a prominent element in Catalan Gothic and have completely
disappeared here.
Three floors are clearly marked horizontally.
In the lower one, corresponding to the side chapels, there are narrow,
relatively small windows that rhythm the wall and each correspond to an
interior chapel and each three to the space between the buttresses. Two
doors also open on the sides: the Sombrereros door and the Moreras door.
Later, a new door was opened in the apse: the Borne door.
Internally it is a building with three naves, with an ambulatory and
without a transept. The naves are made up of four sections and the
presbytery consists of half a section and a seven-sided polygon, all
covered with a ribbed vault and crowned with magnificent vault keys.
Formally, then, we have a building with three naves, but it seems as if
the architect wanted to give the same feeling of space that is achieved
with a single nave. That is why it separates the pillars quite a bit (15
meters) and makes the elevations of the three naves very equal (1/8 less
of the lateral ones than the central one). The result is an open space,
which discards the division of French Gothic and leans towards an idea
of a single space.
The central nave is illuminated by open oculi
between the galleries of the central nave and the sides. These oculi
become windows between the columns of the presbytery, which occupy
almost all the available space and contribute to reinforcing the effect
of the columns with a semicircle of light. The side naves are
illuminated with windows (one per section and not very large) that also
contribute to illuminating the central nave.
It is worth
highlighting the austerity achieved, once again, by the smooth walls; by
the clean octagonal columns, since the ribs end at the level of the
capitals instead of reaching the ground; due to the fact that the arches
of the side naves and those of the central nave start from the same
elevation (the line of imposts, in the capitals) which give a greater
impression of equality of the naves, etc.
It is the most
emblematic and refined example of Catalan Gothic. The importance that
the Rivera neighborhood acquired from the 13th century onwards as a
nerve center for merchants and shipowners led to the construction of a
large church to replace the old Parroquia de las Arenas.
In the
apse, the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament was built in 1790, according
to the designs of the architect Francesc Vila. His painting of The Last
Supper and the Lavatory, by José Arrau Barba, stands out.
Its three façades, the main one located in Plaza de Santa María,
another on Calle de Santa María and that on Paseo del Born, show the
essence of Catalan Gothic: octagonal towers, an abundance of bare
surfaces and solid buttresses.
The main façade is decorated with
images of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, with an unbeatable rose window in
the 15th century flamboyant Gothic style. On the façade on Santa María
Street, the gargoyles on the buttresses, the back of the stained glass
windows and, above all, their monumental dimensions stand out. Its
interior is also a paradigm of Catalan Gothic with its breadth of forms
and decorative austerity. It has three tall naves separated by tall
columns and its harmony consists in the fact that the lateral naves
measure exactly half the central nave and the total width of the complex
is equal to the height of the lateral naves. Its decorative wealth was
destroyed after the riots of 1936, although tombstones related to the
seafaring world remain.
The Basilica of Santa María del Mar stars in Ildefonso Falcones'
novel, The Cathedral of the Sea, which has sold more than six million
copies and has been translated into numerous languages. Likewise, in the
second part of the novel, The Heirs of the Earth. It is also referred to
in the work of Carlos Ruiz Zafón, the novel The Angel's Game, and in the
youth novel Els savis de l'Acadèmia dels Desconfiats, by Àfrica Ragel.
In 2019, the Netflix platform created a series of the same name,
based on Ildefonso Falcones' book The Cathedral of the Sea.