La Concepció
Our first planned trip was to Casa Milá, but while walking between the art nouveau buildings of Eixample I got a glimpse of greenery in a block. Not really knowing what it could be since it wasn't pointed out on our tourist-map, we headed in.
It turned out to be a basilica; The parish church of the Immaculate Conception and Assumption of Our Lady and it has quite an interesting history.
The monastic community of the Benedicine sisters of Saint Vicenc de Jonqueres was founded in 1214, but the sisters hade quite some problems so they moved to Barcelona in 1261. The construction of the chapel on what's now Carrer de Jonqueres was finished by 1300. It was a simpler version that would be replaced by the enormous Catalan Gothic monastic chapel when the community became associated with the daughters of the noble families of Barcelona, and therefor became very wealthy. By 1448 they had a huge chapel and a two-story cloister.
The community was active until the Napoleonic period in 1810. The convent would be converted to a milityary hospital, a prison and later a military depot. It was neglected and the remains of the convent were torn down in 1868. The rest of the complex was planned to be demolised in the mid-19th century to make room for a route that would connect the new city with the seafront. Luckily the Archidocese and the local gentry were foresightful and the complex could be saved. Between 1869 and 1871 the former chapel and cloister were moved brick by brick to their present site in Eixample. When the church was taken back into use in 1872 it became the first parish for the district. It was even given a bell tower when the Church of St. Michael was torn down in order to make way for the expansion of the city hall.
It turned out to be a basilica; The parish church of the Immaculate Conception and Assumption of Our Lady and it has quite an interesting history.
The monastic community of the Benedicine sisters of Saint Vicenc de Jonqueres was founded in 1214, but the sisters hade quite some problems so they moved to Barcelona in 1261. The construction of the chapel on what's now Carrer de Jonqueres was finished by 1300. It was a simpler version that would be replaced by the enormous Catalan Gothic monastic chapel when the community became associated with the daughters of the noble families of Barcelona, and therefor became very wealthy. By 1448 they had a huge chapel and a two-story cloister.
The community was active until the Napoleonic period in 1810. The convent would be converted to a milityary hospital, a prison and later a military depot. It was neglected and the remains of the convent were torn down in 1868. The rest of the complex was planned to be demolised in the mid-19th century to make room for a route that would connect the new city with the seafront. Luckily the Archidocese and the local gentry were foresightful and the complex could be saved. Between 1869 and 1871 the former chapel and cloister were moved brick by brick to their present site in Eixample. When the church was taken back into use in 1872 it became the first parish for the district. It was even given a bell tower when the Church of St. Michael was torn down in order to make way for the expansion of the city hall.
The city of Barcelona has eight basilicas in total and this one is the newest. We took a small peek into the basilica, but there was an ongoing ceremony of some kind and we didn't want to disturb.
Kommentarer
Skicka en kommentar