Barcelona, Sant Pau del Camp



View of East end and North apse. Note tower and blind arcading

The church of St Pau del Camp in Barcelona is a gem, tucked away at the edge of the busy Raval by the Ronda St Antoni. It is a rare and beautiful example of Romanesque architecture within the city. There does not seem to be much information in English - the Spanglish of the short leaflet is not very enlightening - so I offer here a translation - with some additions and abbreviations - of the history and architecture sections of the excellent website.





History

It is not known exactly when the monastery of St Pau delCamp was built. But in 1596 the tomb inscription of Count Wilfred-Borrell, the son of Wilfred the Hairy, was discovered there. This suggests that a monastery must have existed at the site in 911 (the date of Wilfred-Borrell’s death) and that, if it was indeed the burial ground of the Counts of Barcelona, it must have been a site of great importance. According to one much later source, from 1420, it was Wilfred the Hairy himself (first of the line of the Counts of Barcelona, and the father of Wilfred Borrell) who founded a monastery to St Paul here, but, again, there is no document to confirm this.

Count Wilfred's tomb inscription

Graves from the Romano-Christian era (4^th and 5^th centuries) have also been found in Sant Pau (the tombstone of the Count has an inscription from this period on the reverse side). Local tradition has it that there was a hospice in the same place, founded by Saint Paulino, which would date it to the early fifth century, but there is no documentary evidence supporting this. However, the use of Visigothic carvings in the principal door to the church clearly show that a church existed here at that period (late 5^th to early 8^th century).

While its earliest history is undocumented, St Pau del Camp is clearly one of the most ancient monasteries of Barcelona. When it was built it lay far outside the city walls, among the orchards and the fields which lay between the walled city and the hill of Montjuic – hence its name, St Paul-in-the-fields.

In 985 Barcelona was sacked by the Moorish army of Al-Mansur. It is very likely that the (Benedictine) monks abandoned St Pau: for more than a hundred years afterwards the monastery was empty, and  only the church remained open.

Foundation

At the end of the 11^th century,  the nobleman Geribert Guitard and his second wife Rotlendis, both of the family Bell-lloc, restored St Pau del Camp. This restoration must have been effectively a rebuilding, since so little remains from before this date. Geribert and Rotlendis refounded the monastery, joining it with that of Sant Cugat del Vallès to form a single monastic community. Thus was born the Priory of St Pau del Camp. Some years later (29^th April 1117), the foundation was placed under the protection of the Bishop of Barcelona and Archbishop of Tarragona, Oleguer (later Saint Oleguer), after Geribert and Rotlendis donated the castle of Bell-lloc (in Cardedeu) with all its privileges. The donation is recorded on the tombstone of Guillem de Bell-lloc. Placing St Pau under the Holy See in this way gave it autonomy. The house of Bell-lloc retained its association with the monastery, and in 1278 Beltran de Bell-lloc left it the greater part of his possessions in his will, in return for being buried in the cloister.

In 1127, Oleguer  and the monastery’s founders Geribert and Rotlendis once again put St Pau under the charge of San Cugat monastery, despite its autonomous status.

Model of church and former monastery complex (Catalunya en Minitura park)

The ‘Tarragona Cloistered Congregation’

The ‘Congregación Claustral Tarraconense’ was founded in 1229. This was composed of all the Benedictine monasteries of Catalan lands, and by papal commission the Prior of St Pau was appointed president of the assembly. As a result, many assemblies of abbots and priors met in St Pau, and there are numerous documents pertaining to these meetings which were signed in the monastery.

In 1492, by royal decree, the monastery of Montserrat was united to the community of Saint Benedict in Valladolid. The Congregation of Catalan monasteries was thus split, and their assemblies became steadily less important.

Montserrat Monastery became increasingly interested in the monastery of Sant Pau, and in 1577 they finally persuaded Pope Gregory XIII to decree the union of the two communities. A year later the observant monks of Montserrat moved to St Pau, much to the displeasure of the Catalan Congregation, who had now lost their main meeting place. After many protests from the Congregation, the monks of Montserrat moved in 1593 to the Benedictine monastery of Bages, which was closer and better suited to the needs of Montserrat.

But the independence of St Pau did not last long: in 1617 it was annexed by Pope Paul V to the monastery of Sant Pere [Peter] de la Portella  (in the county of Berguedà), whose monks (with a single exception, who stayed behind as curate of the church) moved to St Pau, which changed in status from priory to abbey. In 1672 the buildings were enlarged to accommodate the school and novices of the Benedictine Congregation of Catalunya.

The End of the Monastery and the Start of the Parish

In the years 1808-1814, when Spain was occupied by the French, the monastery became first a hospital for the French troops and subsequently a barracks for Italian soldiers. In October 1814, when the French had left, it opened once again as a teaching institution. This was owing to the efforts of a young teacher named Joan de Zafont, who two years later was appointed Professor of Theology at the age of only 27; later he would become the last abbot of St Pau del Camp.

1820-23 are the years of the ‘Trienio Liberal’, three years of liberal government in Spain. During this period, the government decreed the dissolution of the monastery and novitiate and created the parish of St Pau. The monastery buildings – with the exception of the church which continued to serve as a parish church – were appropriated by the government, who passed them to Barcelona City Hall [ie the Council]. The City Hall initially considered using them as an abattoir (!), then decided to use them as a reformatory. Fortunately this period was a brief one, and was overseen by Joan de Zafont, who had been appointed administrator of the parish of St Pau in 1822.

[In 1823 a French army invaded Spain and restored the absolute power of the monarchy]. When the Trienio fell in 1824 the monastery returned to its original use, although since it was still used as a barracks for French soldiers (who remained to protect the monarchic government), the monks themselves could not return until 1828.

In 1835 there was a popular uprising in Barcelona in protest at working and living conditions; as on other occasions, this expressed itself through the burning of religious buildings and factories. It is likely that the monks of St Pau del Camp left definitively at this point, although it was spared destruction.

In 1837 the Minister of Finance Mendizábal oversaw the ‘desamortización’ or confiscation of Church property, which the government then auctioned in order to raise funds to reduce the chronic public deficit. The Church of St Pau became the parish church, while the rest of the monastery was used for various functions: in 1842 it housed two schools, one for boys and one for girls, and from 1845-90 it was an infantry barracks. In 1879, after a campaign led by a patriotic Catalanist group led by the writer and politician Víctor Balaguer, St Pau del Camp was recognised as a national monument.

Fifteen years later, in 1894, the first phase of restoration began. This concluded in 1927 with the demolition of the outbuildings, with the exception of the gothic chapter room of the fourteenth century. work was set back by further destruction in the Tragic week (1909) and in 1936 (the start of the spanish Civil War). Recent restoration has concentrated on levelling the terrain, which has been affected by rain and floods, and dealing with the problems caused by dust and dirt and the erosion of timber and stone. Of the original monastery of St Pau del Camp, today there only remains the church, the chapterhouse, the cloister and the abbot’s house, which is now the rectory.

Architecture

The monastery of St Pau del Camp is one of the few surviving Romanesque buildings in Barcelona. Although we know it existed in some form in the tenth century, the structure we see today is the result of the rebuilding in the twelfth century.

Exterior
The principal door to the church is reached from the carrer de Sant Pau. From this side we see that the facade of the church is at right angles to the wall of the rectory (formerly the abbot’s residence), a typical feature of thirteenth and fourteenth century Catalan Gothic.

The door is flanked by two columns supporting the round archivolt. The decoration of the door complex is in the visigothic tradition: two marble visigothic capitals, presumably recovered from the older building, carry imposts with geometrical motifs. The facade carries the symbols of the four evangelists: at the base of the archivolt we find a lion (St Mark, on the left), an ox (St Luke) and above the archivolt, on the wall, a winged man (St Matthew) and an eagle (St John).

On the tympanum Christ in Majesty is in the attitude of blessing (below the highest facade sculpture of the divine hand blessing), accompanied by St Paul on the right and St Peter on the left. On the lintel beneath, immediately beneath the figure of Christ is a Cross with inscriptions of alpha and Omega, and the names of Sts Peter and Paul. Around this is an inscription which reads: ‘This door is the way to the Lord for all, the door to the Garden of Life. Enter here, passing through me. Renard, for himself and for the soul of his wife Ramona, gave 7 maravedís towards the building of this church.’

Around the archivolt are carvings of human, fantastic animal faces and vegetal motifs. The west wall on either side of the door is decorated by blind arcading, which is continued around the exterior.

Interior



View from Crossing. Shell-shaped concavities in pendentives

From the outside one can see the Greek cross for of the church, which is made up of a nave, transepts, and three apses .  The ceiling consists of barrel vaulting, and a dome over the crossing supported by pendentives, carrying  an octagonal tower. As on the outside, the interior wall surfaces are articulated by blind arches.

The south transept leads to the gothic chapter room, which in turn connects to the Romanesque cloister. The three apses are decorated with carvings of vegetal and geometric forms which reveal an Arabic influence.  The groundplan makes the scheme clear, but conceals the many irregularities which are typical of the period.

Only limited light enters the interior, giving the church an atmosphere suited to prayer and reflection. The main altar was formerly dedicated to St Pau, patron saint of swordsmiths. On the right there used to an altarpiece dedicated to St Benedict and on the left an altar to Our Lady of the Rosary and to Saint Galderic, patron saint of peasants.

The floor of the church was restored in 2002, when the ground was levelled (it had been seriously affected by rain and floods).

The Cloister
From an architectural point of view, the cloister of St Pau is the most important feature: the arches here are unique in all of Europe. The twelfth-century cloister was constructed after the church, and shows clear Moorish influences.

Five-lobed arch, Moorish influence. Compare Gaudi, Casa Vicens

The arches are composed of three or five lobes, decorated with vegetal or geometric carvings, and rest on simple paired columns. The column bases are very simple, and two have vegetable designs, as if they are upside down capitals.

Of the 48 capitals, many repeat a pattern derived from the Corinthian, while others are clearly Romanesque, with zoomorphic designs. Figurative elements include lions, warriors fighting monsters, and birds of prey. Next to a carving of a man hunting a gazelle there is a depiction of Adam and Eve being tempted by the serpent, and a woman tormented by two toads.  Such motifs also appear in other Catalan monasteries, such as San Cugat. There is a stylistic mixture, from the Moorish arches to the Romanesque carvings of a group of sculptors, some of whose other works can also be seen in Barcelona, to Gothic elements.

Adam and Eve (left)

The cloister itself is clearly articulated, with buttresses in the middle of each side supporting a gallery. Around the cloister are several tombs, many of them pertaining to the Bell-lloc family.

Further Sources

Images

Video (images only)

Photo album by Angels Gomez

General
Web page with photos and good information on history and architecture (Spanish / Catalan): principal source for this blog
Catalan Monasteries (Catalan) - includes photos of the church in the early twentieth century.
Catalan Romanesque gencat guide: see opening pages on Romanesque style
Sacred Destinations site

History
Catholic Barcelona blog (English)
Josefina Mutgé i Vives, Noticies Historiques sobre el Monestir de Sant Pau del Camp de Barcelona (1117-1212) (Catalan)
armoria.info - details of tombs and heraldic symbols (Spanish)

Park

BCN Green Spaces page on church and surrounding space

Barcelona, The Raval (History)

The following text is translated / adapted from the site of the Ajuntament (Town Hall) of Barcelona. It provides a useful guide to the historical background of the Raval.

Fes c

El barrio del Rava

Fes clic per ampliar!

In Roman Barcelona (Barcino) there were roads that roughly defined the area of what was to be the Raval district. From this time to the fourteenth century, the Raval was an open field with cultivated land, lying  next to the city of Barcelona. En la Barcelona romana había caminos vecinales que dibujaron el contorno que el barrio tuvo más adelante.

El monasterio de Sant Pau del Camp fue el primer núcleo importante del Raval, anterior al siglo X, en torno al cual hubo una pequeña villa medieval vinculada al monThe Monastery of Sant Pau del Camp was the first important nucleus of the Raval. This church was built before the tenth century, and a small medieval village grew up around it. The growth of the Raval into  the form of a diamond took place between 1268 and 1348. These are the dates of the two rings of medieval walls which extended the Roman bounds of city. 1268 saw the construction of the second ring of walls under Jaume I. When further extension was needed, the third and final ring of walls was built under Peter the Ceremonious, 1348. The 1348 walls remained for just over 500 years, when they were knocked down to form the Eixample. They can still be traced today by streets called ‘Ronda’ and the Paral.lel.

La ciudad de Barcelona se encontraba ahogada por las murallas de Jaume I; Pere el Cerimoniós decidió levantar el tercer cinturón amurallado.Pere el Cerimoniós decided to construct the third ring of walls to meet the predicted urban growth. Existía la tendencia general de muchas ciudades de la época de rodear dentro de las murallas la extensión de terreno suficiente para prever la subsistencia de los habitantes en tiempo de guerras y asedios. The Raval was now enclosed and part of the city.  It was still farmland, and intended to provide for the subsistence of the population in times of wars and sieges. Otro motivo era localizar fuera del núcleo urbano los establecimientos, servicios y actividades más molestos o poco recomendables. But the city did not grow as expected in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century: there were economic difficulties (the sea trade moved to the Atlantic), political problems (Barcelona was ruined by the war against Juan II) and adverse social conditions (a demographic downturn was caused by plagues and epidemics). All of these halted the growth of the Raval, which remained in essence an agricultural area.

Entre el siglo XV y la desamortización de Mendizábal en el año 1837, el Raval se convirtió en "tierra de conventos".The Raval did, however, become "the land of monasteries." La gran cantidad de suelo edificable dio pie a la instalación de órdenes religiosas en el marco de la Contrarreforma impulsada por el Concilio de Trento (1543-1563). The large amount of available building land led to the installation of religious orders during the Counter-Reformation. One convent of the Raval was the Dominican Convent dels Angels, built by the architect Bartolomeu Roig in the middle of the sixteenth century. This gothic building, led into by a modest renaissance facade, is now an exhibition space, forming part of the cultural complex formed by MACBA and the CCCB in the square named after it, La Plaza dels Angels, a striking mixture of old and new. “The land of monasteries” came to an end with ‘La Desamortización’ in 1837, when many monasteries across Spain were expropriated and privatized by a liberal government.

A principios del siglo XVIII, las industrias empezaron a instalarse en medio de huertos, conventos y casas gremiales.In the early eighteenth century, the Raval changed its character as industries began to settle among the gardens, convents and guild houses. La prohibición del año 1718 de importar tejidos estampados favoreció la aparición de la industria manufacturera. In 1718 a ban on imported printed fabrics led to the emergence of the manufacturing industry. Entre 1770 y 1840 se produjo la industrialización definitiva del barrio del Raval. Between 1770 and 1840 the Raval was industrialized. A partir de la segunda mitad de 1700 empezaron a aparecer nuevas calles con fábricas y viviendas para los trabajadores. From 1750 new streets began to appear with factories and housing for workers. Desaparecieron las casas gremiales o se subdividieron en muchas viviendas de alquiler para acoger a los numerosos campesinos que huían del hambre del campo (crisis agrícola de 1765-1766). Guild houses disappeared or were subdivided into rented tenements to accommodate the many hungry peasants fleeing the countryside (in particular at the time of a severe agricultural crisis in 1765-1766). Los trabajadores de las fábricas se quedaron a vivir en el Raval., cerca del trabajo. The factory workers settled in the Raval, closer to their place of work. Este barrio se convirtió en el más denso de Europa y se aprovechó hasta el último metro cuadrado edificable. This district became the most densely populated in Europe. Entre los años 1783 y 1785, se instaló la industria Erasme Gònima y se levantó la mayor fábrica de tejidos, hilados y estampados de su tiempo. Between 1783 and 1785 the ‘Erasme Gònima’ was established - the largest fabric manufacturer of the period.

Las jornadas de los obreros eran de doce horas (desde las cinco de la mañana hasta las ocho de la noche).The working days stretched from five in the morning until eight at night. En el año 1829, según el Padrón de Fabricantes, en el Raval había 74 fabricantes textiles, 2.443 telares y 657 máquinas de hilar. In 1829, according to the Census of Manufacturers, in the Raval there were 74 textile manufacturers, 657 looms, and 2,443 spinning machines. Destacaba la fábrica Bonaplata, instalada en la calle de los Tallers. Particularly important was the Bonaplata factory, installed in the Carrer dels Tallers. Tenía entre 600 y 700 trabajadores y era la primera que se impulsaba con vapor. It employed between 600 and 700 workers and was the first factory in Barcelona to be powered by steam. La culminación de todo este proceso fue la instalación conocida como casa-fábrica, donde coincidían las instalaciones fabriles, la representación institucional y la residencia del fabricante. The culmination of this process was the facility known as the ‘home-factory’, where manufacturing plants, institutional representation and the residence of the manufacturer all occupied the same area. Este es el caso de la España Industrial en el año 1839 en la calle de la Riereta. El Raval was the only place within the walls where it was possible to construct large buildings: outside the walls factories would be threatened by political instability, such as the Carlists (a political movement permanently at war with the monarchy), and by common banditry. The Raval was also well placed as an industrial centre as it offered an easy route to the port.

El mantenimiento de unos sueldos bajos, unas largas jornadas laborales, el cierre de las fábricas como demostración de fuerza de los fabricantes, la supresión de la sopa de caridad y la persecución de las asociaciones obreras hicieron que el 2 de julio de 1855 estallara una huelga bajo la consigna general del derecho de asociación y la jornada laboral de diez horas. Industrialisation was accompanied by industrial unrest. Low wages, long hours,  the closure of factories as a show of force by the manufacturers, the removal of charity soup and the prohibition of workers' associations led to a strike (July 2, 1855), in which workers demanded the right of association and a ten-hour workday. Las revueltas obreras contra las mecanizaciones modernas y diversas epidemias de cólera llevaron a tomar la decisión de derribar las murallas en el año 1859 y permitir así la expansión urbana e industrial fuera de un núcleo urbano insalubre y fácilmente controlable por un movimiento obrero que empezaba a organizarse. Workers' revolts against modern machinery,  and various cholera epidemics, helped lead to the decision to tear down the walls in 1859, thereby allowing expansion outside the old city, which was both unhealthy and easily controlled by an increasingly organized labour movement. El éxodo empresarial hacia la planura de Barcelona empezó a principios de los años sesenta. From the early 1860s, companies moved to the plain outside Barcelona being developed into the Eixample. In the new model city, the Raval became a peripheral area, chiefly providing workers’ tenement housing. In the early twentieth century it continued to have a predominantly working class population. Los movimientos de los barrio alcanzaron una importancia que rebasó sus fronteras. As such, it was of wider national importance in the story of organised labour. In 1870 the first Spanish Labour Congress took place.  In 1871 the largest Catalan union of the time (of textile workers) joined the First International, and in 1888, the large modern union, the UGT, was also founded  in the Raval.

The El Raval se fue convirtiendo cada vez más en un barrio de viviendas para las clases con menos poder adquisitivo, entre las cuales los inmigrantes (exposiciones universales de 1888 y 1929) eran una parte destacada.TheT Raval was becoming increasingly an area of ​​housing for the poor, in particular immigrant workers (for example those employed for the world fairs of 1888 and 1929) This working class played an important role during the ‘Semana Trágica’ (26-31 July 1909), a week of riots during which the Raval was one of the main centres for the burning of convents and the confrontation with the army. [Added: The anarcho-syndicalists played an important part in the organisation of strikes and revolutionary opposition to the established order. This tradition is still alive in the Raval today: in 1988, beneath the headquarters of the CNT Union (Confederación Nacional de Trabajo) a bookshop opened dedicated to anarchist and socialist publications, with its own magazine, ‘Solidaridad Obrera’ (‘Workers’ Solidarity’). The bookshop is called ‘La Rosa del Foc’(The Fiery Rose), which was the name coined for Barcelona as parts of it burned in the ‘Setmana Trágica’ a century ago.]

El hacinamiento humano, una red viaria estrecha y tortuosa, la proximidad del puerto y la dedicación de muchos inmuebles a bares, salas de espectáculos y casas de tolerancia, acabaron configurando una zona en el sur del Raval que hacia el año 1925 el periodista Àngel Marsà bautizó con el nombre de Barrio Chino.Overcrowding, narrow winding roads, the proximity of the port, and the proliferation of bars, clubs and brothels, characterized a zone in the south of the Raval that in 1925 the journalist Àngel Marsà baptized ‘Chinatown’ (Barri Chino). Las destrucciones de la guerra y la miseria de la posguerra perjudicaron considerablemente la vida nocturna del barrio, en un proceso que acabó con el decreto de cierre de las casas de prostitución en el año 1956. The Civil Car (1936-39) greatly damaged this nightlife district, and after the war reformation was pursued by other means: the closure of brothels was decreed in 1956.

Las primeras voces que reclamaron la mejora del barrio surgieron en los años treinta, durante la Segunda República 1931-1936, con las propuestas de los arquitectos del GATCPAC.The first voices that called for the improvement of the Raval came in the thirties, during the Second Republic (1931-1936), with the proposals of the architects of GATCPAC. El plan Macià ofrecía soluciones racionalistas e integradas en los problemas del barrio. The Macià plan offered integrated solutions to the problems of the neighbourhood. Pero fueron las bombas de la Guerra Civil las que hicieron los primeros saneamientos urbanísticos en el sur del Raval (avenida de García Morato, hoy avenida de las Drassanes). But it was the bombing of the Civil War which led to the first urban sanitation in the southern Raval (García Morato Avenue, Avenue of the Drassanes today). Durante los años ochenta del siglo XX, la Administración impulsó una decidida política de reformas y rehabilitación de viviendas, de apertura de espacios y creación de equipamientos para la comunidad, que fue dejando en segundo término el nombre de Barrio Chino para recuperar la denominación histórica del Raval. During the 1980s, the Administration promoted a policy of housing improvements, creating open spaces and opening facilities for the community. This was the 'espinjament' or 'cleaning' programme. The name Chinatown was gradually replaced by the historical designation ‘Raval’.

Further Sources

• Some excellent material on The Raval today can be found on the Geography Fieldwork site
• Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies vol.6 (2002) has a special section of six papers (five in English) on 'Barcelona and the Projection of Catalonia' dealing with urban issues, some touching on the Raval. Varied subject matter, and readable style. [JSTOR restricted]
• Here are two (of many) scholarly articles on the constructed identity of the Raval (the 'Barrio Chino') by Gary McDonogh:
• Bars, Gender, and Virtue: Myth and Practice in Barcelona's "Barrio Chino", Anthropological Quarterly , Vol. 65, No. 1 (Jan., 1992), pp. 19-33                     
• The Geography of Evil: Barcelona's Barrio Chino, Anthropological Quarterly , Vol. 60, No. 4, In Memory of Michael Kenny (Oct., 1987), pp. 174-184    

Biutiful

Alejandro González Iñárritu makes viscerally powerful films which take us through the depiction of physical and mental pain to the suggestion of spiritual release. Biutiful follows this journey, though unlike the Mexican director’s earlier films (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel) it does not intercut frenetically between different plotlines (though his genius for the sudden cut is at work here - it is not a surprise to learn it took 14 months to edit this work). Everything here is seen through the story of Uxbal (played by Javier Bardem), who is trying to set his affairs in order in his last few months on earth. Set in the non-tourist board Barcelona, Biutiful checks in on a long list of social issues: human trafficking, illegal immigrants, contraband goods, police corruption, prostitution, drugs, mental illness, child abuse and, everywhere, desperate grinding poverty.

Striding doggedly through  this unremitting bleakness  is Uxbal, a flawed but fundamentally decent figure: he does his best to look out for immigrant workers, and as a (genuine) medium brings some comfort to the bereaved. We see him take money for these services (he is too much of a mixture for us to view him sentimentally), but it is clear from his behaviour that he is guided by more than mercenary motives. Above all Uxbal tries to do his best for his children, and to assure some kind of stable life for them when he is gone. A dreadful event in the centre of the film lays a terrible weight of guilt on him just as he is worn to almost nothing by his material worries and medical condition.

Biutiful is to some degree a portrait of modern Barcelona, or rather its underbelly, which could be that of any large Western city. Hand-held camera techniques take us into the tenements , basements and small shops of the Raval until we can almost smell the damp and feel the cold. There is a breathtaking setpiece as the African merchants are chased down the Ramblas by the police, while the development of an old cemetery, and the construction site in Badalona illustrate the ongoing  concrete sprawl. Sometimes the camera swoops up to the heavens, with Gustavo Santaolalla’s characteristically ethereal score suggesting the spiritual dimension to which Uxbal has some access. Somehow I found myself on this occasion resisting the film’s pull to the spiritual: perhaps this was because by now with this director’s work you see the themes of penitence and redemption coming; or perhaps because it just seemed unnecessary. The simple fact of Uxbal’s resilient humanity is enough, whatever lies beyond.  But the depiction of the life of the underclass of a big city, and the relationships between the main characters, were deeply affecting. Biutiful is in pretty much every way a complete contrast to Vicky Cristina Barcelona, which also as it happens stars Javier Bardem,  now surely established as one of the greatest screen presences of film today.