Hospital de Sant Pau

Interesting facts

Domènech set the hospital's streets deliberately out of line with Barcelona's Eixample grid, a gesture of his open opposition to Ildefons Cerdà's plan.

The original grounds covered about 145,000 square metres, equal to nine blocks of the Eixample, giving roughly 145 square metres per bed against a European norm of about 100.

Before Domènech was hired, a competition was won by another architect, but a panel of doctors rejected all three entries and the scheme was started afresh.

Pau Gil's bequest ran out after just nine pavilions had been built, and later buildings depended on other donors.

Men's pavilions on the east side are named after male saints, while the women's pavilions on the west bear the names of female saints or titles of the Virgin.

Gil's initials P and G recur throughout the decoration, but the Sant Rafael pavilion, paid for by Rafael Rabell, repeats an R instead.

The statue on the Sant Leopold pavilion was modelled on Leopold Gil, the nephew of the founding benefactor.

One entrance of the convent building reuses the Baroque facade of Santa Marta church, taken down for the Via Laietana and rebuilt here in 1928.

Gardens wound between the pavilions so that each had a sunny green space for winter on one side and a shaded one for summer on the other.

The restoration of the Modernista pavilions, begun in 2009, involved more than 30 specialist teams and cost about 100 million euros.

Why it is worth it

Domes covered in coloured ceramic, brick pavilions trimmed with mosaic and stone sculpture, gardens laid out along broad avenues: the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau is the largest ensemble of Catalan Modernisme, and it was built to care for the sick. Its architect, Lluís Domènech i Montaner, believed patients would recover better among trees, light and beauty than in closed wards, and he designed a garden city of separate pavilions rather than a single block. Together with his Palau de la Música Catalana, it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1997.

The institution itself is far older. The Hospital de la Santa Creu was founded in 1401 by merging six small medieval hospitals, and its Gothic buildings in the old city now house the National Library of Catalonia. By the late nineteenth century they were overcrowded, and the bequest of Pau Gil, a Barcelona-born banker based in Paris who left part of his fortune for a new hospital dedicated to Saint Paul, made the move possible. The first stone was laid in 1902. Domènech's plan placed the pavilions along two main axes set on the diagonals of the site, forming a cross that recalls the old hospital's emblem, with service tunnels running underground between the buildings. He directed the first phase until 1913; his son Pere Domènech i Roura continued from the 1920s in a plainer style. Of 48 planned pavilions, only part were built. The administration building, crowned by a clock tower 62 metres high, holds a lofty assembly hall; much of the sculpture across the complex is by Eusebi Arnau and his pupil Pau Gargallo.

The complex worked as a hospital until 2009, when patients moved to a new building on the north side of the grounds. Since 2014 the Modernista pavilions have served as a heritage site and cultural centre. The story goes that at the official inauguration King Alfonso XIII teased the people of Barcelona for giving their sick a palace while giving their king a stable.

Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia, grew rapidly beyond its medieval walls in the late nineteenth century, and Sant Pau was built on what was then open land on the city's edge, chosen for its air, greenery and views towards the sea.

Getting there

The complex stands in the El Guinardó neighbourhood of Barcelona, inside the city. The nearest airport is Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN), about 15 km away.

From the encyclopaedia

The former Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau in the neighborhood of El Guinardó, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, is a complex built between 1901 and 1930. It is one of the most prominent works of the Catalan modernisme architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner. The complex was listed as a Conjunto Histórico in 1978. Together with Palau de la Música Catalana, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.

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Hospital de Sant Pau

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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From the encyclopaedia