Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site
The world’s largest Modernista complex
The Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau (Hospital of the Holy Cross and Saint Paul) is, without doubt, the most important work of the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner. The building was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. The Modernista architect started its construction in 1902, using Europe’s most modern hospitals for inspiration. He wanted a health centre where patients could take a stroll and not feel closed in. The result was a set of pavilions in the Modernista style of ornamentation and architecture that are surrounded by gardens and connected to each other by means of a network of underground tunnels.
Barcelona Bus Turístic, on the Hola Barcelona app
Your app for visiting the city with the Barcelona Bus Turístic: routes, stops and the most iconic places. A comfortable way to carry your tickets too!
Why visit Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site?
The construction of the Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site was made possible thanks to the legacy of a Barcelona banker established in Paris, Pau Gil i Serra, who set part of his estate aside for the construction of a hospital named after Saint Paul to attend to the poor.
This is the origin of an entire Modernista complex that was designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner and built in two phases: the first, from 1902 to 1913, when the architect created 13 Modernista buildings; and the second, from 1920, when his son Pere Domènech i Roura built another six buildings in a moderate Modernista style.
In 1926, the old Hospital de la Santa Creu (Hospital of the Holy Cross), located on Carrer de l’Hospital, which is now home to the Library of Catalonia, and one of Europe’s oldest was transferred to this new hospital centre. This is why it is often also called Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau.
Domènech i Montaner conceived the hospital as a ‘city-garden’. For this reason, the site has its own urban tissue running north-south so that the maximum amount of light would shine on the main facades. The buildings were constructed with the usual materials and decoration employed in neo-Gothic inspired Modernisme. It features a profusion of ceramics, exposed brick, and sculptures whose extensive iconography reveals the religious and historicist vision of its architect.
The Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau medical facilities now occupy a modern building located at the far north of the heritage site. The original complex, for its part, has been restored. Some of the old wings can be visited. A cultural programme is being carried out there that aims to show the history of the institution and highlight the figure of the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner. Other buildings house organisations that develop high social impact projects in the areas of health, innovation and sustainability, such as the World Health Organisation or the European Forest Institute.
How do you get to Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site?
From the Sant Pau Recinte Modernista stop on the Blue Route of the Barcelona Bus Turístic, you will get to the main entrance of the modernist complex if you follow Carrer de Cartagena as far as Carrer Sant Antoni Maria Claret.
For the most curious of you
- Did you know? When Barcelona City Council awarded it the special prize in the 1913 edition of its annual artistic buildings competition it stated that each individual building in the complex was worthy of a prize. As it was the third time that Domènech i Montaner took this award, having previously won for Casa Lleó i Morera and the Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona City Council awarded him the institution’s Gold Medal.
- Local’s tip: A specific programme of visits for schools and families gives us the chance to discover and learn to value this architectural jewel.
- A must: To discover decades of Barcelona’s science, history and architecture in a single day.
