Barcelona Cathedral

Church · Barri Gòtic (Ciutat Vella)Barcelona,Spain

A wide, dim Catalan Gothic cathedral in Barcelona's old city, begun in 1298 behind a front finished only in 1913, thirteen geese in its cloister.

Barcelona Cathedral is a broad, dim Catalan Gothic hall with a cloister full of geese. Thirteen white geese live in a courtyard of palms and orange trees beside a mossy Gothic fountain, ringed by chapels that medieval guilds paid to build. Inside the church the side aisles climb almost to the height of the nave, so it reads as one wide dark room rather than a tall narrow one. It is dedicated to the Holy Cross and to Saint Eulàlia, whose sarcophagus lies in the crypt below the high altar. The lacy, pinnacled west front is barely a century old. It was paid for in the late 1880s and finished in 1913, worked up from a medieval design the church had never been able to afford. Behind it the building is far older: begun in 1298 and finished, cloister and all, by the middle of the next century, on the site of an earlier Romanesque cathedral. It is still the archbishop's working seat, and the old customs are kept: an eggshell dances on the fountain's jet at Corpus Christi, and a Christmas fair has filled the square since the 1780s.

Worth knowing

Good to know

The oldest way in — On Carrer dels Comtes the Porta de Sant Iu, low and plain, served as the main entrance for centuries while the west end stood as a blank wall.
Not the church people queue for — Most visitors give their morning to the Sagrada Família, so the city's medieval seat stays comparatively calm; late in the afternoon the nave can empty right out.
Let your eyes adjust before you judge it — Windows here sit high and small. Stand still for two minutes and the side chapels come out of the dark, gilt and all.
A working courtyard, not a zoo — The geese are loud and unbothered; leave them unfed. Services run in chapels a few metres away, so let the honking stay the loudest sound.
On the roof, look down not out — The terrace's reward isn't the skyline but the near view: octagonal bell towers close enough to read, and tiled roofs pressed against the cathedral walls.

Things to do

1
Take one slow lap of the cloister
Walk all four galleries in one direction and read the chapels rather than the courtyard: each was endowed by a guild, so hunt the trade in the heraldry — shears, a hammer, a shoe. Finish at the fountain end, where the birds keep to their pool and the honking carries under the vaults.
2
Go down the stairs in front of the altar
Find the broad staircase sinking into the floor before the high altar and follow it under the church. In the low crypt, get close to the alabaster sarcophagus and read its carved panels left to right: trial, martyrdom, burial, told as a strip in stone.
3
Stand at the edge of the Sunday circles
On Sunday mornings the square in front of the façade is often given over to sardana circles. Stand at the edge and watch the feet rather than the faces: the steps are short, counted and deliberately undramatic, bags piled in the middle of each ring. Rings open for anyone who joins.