Barcelona, Santa Maria del Mar

Santa Maria del Mar is one of the most beautiful churches in Spain, and the purest example of the distinctive Catalan Gothic style, characterised by undecorated wall masses, clear and minimally decorated articulation, and unified space. Together with the Cathedral and Santa Maria del Pi, Santa Maria del Mar one of the monuments of Gothic ecclesiastical architecture in the old quarter of Barcelona. To them we can add the church and monastery of Pedralbes. Santa Maria del Mar (Our Lady of the Sea) seems to turn its back on the modern city and communicates through its pure, spacious and simple style something of the devotion which inspired its creation. Anyway, below are some less rhapsodic and more factual notes. They are derived pretty much entirely from the Spanish Wikipedia page.

In Brief

·         SMM is a Catalan Gothic Church.

·         It is situated in the seafront area called the ‘Ribera’.

·         Built 1329 – 1383

·         The two masters of works were Berenguer de Montagut (principal designer) and Ramón Despuig

History

·         There is some evidence that it is built on the site of a Roman amphitheatre

·         The stones of the Portal of ‘las Moreras’ indicate that construction began in 1329

·         Local ties were very important: the work was undertaken by the faithful of the area of the port and the Ribera, who supported it with both money and labour. Thus it was a church for the common people, in contrast to the contemporary Cathedral, which was patronised by the monarchy, nobility and eminent ecclesiastics.

·         All the local population appear to have contributed to the construction, especially the ‘bastaixos’ – the stevedores who offloaded the huge stones at the port and then carried them on their shoulders to the church. A carving on the main door of the church pays homage to the ‘bastaixos’.

·         Walls, side chapels and façade were finished c.1350

·         In 1379, when the vaulting of the 4^th bay was nearing completion, the scaffolding caught fire and the stonework was damaged.

·       In 1383 the final section of vaulting was completed, and the first Mass was said in 1384.

·         In 1428 an earthquake caused the rose window  to collapse, causing some deaths.

·         In 1936 baroque and later work was destroyed when the church was attacked by anarchists and communists [making it look a lot less cluttered than the Cathedral]

Exterior. General Effect is one of massiveness and strength

·       Horizontality is emphasised. Walls have mouldings, cornices and smooth surfaces. Although it is a high building, the design of the exterior makes us see it as heavy and grounded (in great contrast to French Gothic).

·         Building as a whole forms a compact block.

·         The uniform height creates an even lighting effect inside (again distinct from the play of light and shadow in French Gothic churches)

·        Façade is framed by two octagonal towers. The columns on the inside take up this octagonal form.

·         Two pronounced buttresses frame the West rose window and emphasise the width of the vault.

·         Façade is clearly divided into three sections. Horizontality is again stressed in the towers, which have layered galleries rather than pinnacles or spires.

·         The lower level has the West portal at its centre; the second level is centred on the rose window

·         The West façade is particularly austere in the aisles, where there are large areas of undecorated and uninterrupted wall.

·         The light and elegant finials and other decorations of French Gothic are entirely absent from this typical example of Catalan Gothic.

·         On N and S walls the lower level corresponds to the side chapels, each of which is marked by a thin window. Windows and grouped into three between buttresses, creating a rhythm.

Interior

·         Plan: Nave, aisles leading directly to presbytery with ambulatory. No transept.

·         Nave and aisles formed of four bays

·         Presbytery formed of a half bay + seven-sided polygon.

·         Ribbed vaulting throughout, with bosses marking the intersection of the ribs (also a feature of the Cathedral).

·         Although the formal division is nave + aisles, the architect seems to want to create the same sensation as a single nave. This effect is achieved by:

o   Leaving a lengthy space (15 metres) between the columns

o   Making nave and aisles almost the same height: the aisles are only ⅛ lower than the nave.

o   This leads to a ‘diaphonous space’, quite different from the divisions of European Gothic

·         Nave lit by high clerestory windows.

·         Windows between presbytery columns create effect of a hemisphere of light

·         Aisles lit by small low windows

·         Spacious design allows light to illuminate the nave.

·         General effect of austerity created by:

o   Smooth walls without sculpted decoration

o   Undecorated, slender octagonal columns

o   Ribs springing from capitals (not following to the floor as engaged shafts) means columns retain pure form

o   Arches in nave and aisles have the same springing point (ie they start from the same height) further emphasising the effect of uniformity.

Other Sources
Santa Maria del Mar is one of a select group of churches that has inspired a novel (like Salisbury inspiring Golding's The Spire). Ildefonso Falcones' The Cathedral of the Sea  depicts fourteenth-century Barcelona in vivid detail, and keeps us reading with an adventure story typical of the genre. There is a huge amount to be learned from it about the city when Santa Maria del Mar was being built. Well worth checking out.

There is a brief description on the Sacred Destinations site, and a thumbnail sketch by the City council.

Description on Catholic Barcelona blog

Generalitat Catalan Gothic guide

Edward Steese, 'The Great Churches of Catalonia', Parnassus (7:3, March 1935), pp 9-12.

Robert Hughes, Barcelona, ch.3 ('If not, not') section v has a beautiful description of this church and other examples of Catalan Gothic in Barcelona.

To see how Gothic fits into the whole story of architecture in Barcelona (and Catalonia) see the Generalitat handy outline.

Barcelona: Reading Suggestions

There are a fair few posts with the 'Barcelona' tag on this blog now, most with links and suggestions for reading. But a straight reading list on the city and its art might also be useful, so here it is - limited to English language publications, not counting guidebooks etc. which can be bought on site, and aimed at those whose interest is principally in art history.
Robert Hughes, Barcelona. A mighty tome which covers the city's history from its origins to the late nineteenth century. There's a huge amount of interest here. The early chapters might have been pruned a bit - lengthy quotations from Spanish Latin poets seems a little indulgent - but Hughes writes brilliantly about Romanesque and Gothic art. The later chapters, on the nineteenth century and Gaudí, are the sharpest.

Colm Toíbin, Homage to Barcelona. Picks up after Hughes leaves off, concentrating on the twentieth century and drawing on the author's experiences of living there. By no means just about art - there are great passages on food and out-of-town clubs under Franco - but there is a good deal on the visuals of the city too. Some lovely writing on Miró here. Toíbin is a distinguished critic and novelist, and the book is a masterclass in observational writing.

Bahamón and Losantos, Barcelona: Historical Atlas of Architecture. Beautifully produced book, which takes us through the history of the city, pointing out many buildings along the way, from the Roman walls to 2006. Sections on the different districts of BCN take us well beyond the usual tourist routes.

Manuel Gausa and others, BCN: Barcelona, a Guide to its Modern Architecture. Handbook to architecture between 1860 and 2002, with key facts on a huge number of buildings. These last two books show there is a lot more to Barcelona's architecture than Gaudí!

Marilyn McCully, ed., Homage to Barcelona: The City and its Art, 1888-1936. Exhibition catalogue for a Hayward Gallery exhibition of 1985. Covers the period where the city saw most expansion and development, and probably the richest profusion of artistic movements. Digestible chapters on many topics, well illustrated.  Out of print, but well worth tracking down.

William H Robinson and Jordi Falg, Barcelona and Modernity: Gaudí, Picasso, Miró, Dalí.  Another exhibition catalogue, big and beautiful, covering the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Online

Most of these links are given elsewhere in the blog, but I repeat them here for convenience.

The Culturcat site has detailed accounts of the major periods and movements in art in Catalonia.

Barcelona One and Only is an entry-level pdf guide to the main works in the city.

Routes of Gothic covers civil and ecclesiastical buildings in the Gothic style across Barcelona.

Modernism in Barcelona - another pdf guide, this time to the Modernist works of Gaudí and his contemporaries.

David Mackay, Modern Architecture in Barcelona (1854-1939). Monograph which goes well beyond the usual guidebook level.

See the Art Public link on the sidebar opposite for an invaluable source of information on public monuments.