Santa Maria del Pi. Masterpieces of Gothic Barcelona
Santa Maria del Pi. Masterpieces of Gothic Barcelona
I admit honestly - I am not indifferent to Gothic architecture. And how could it be otherwise? Every inveterate traveler who has more than once had to freeze in silent delight at the sight of the severe bulk of a Gothic temple, directed with a stone mass into the sky, will understand what I am talking about.
Barcelona is famous for its Gothic masterpieces - it is not for nothing that an entire area of the old city is called Barri Gotic. This is explained simply: the city knew three periods of greatest prosperity - the late Middle Ages, the 19th century and the present times.
It was precisely in the first era of prosperity, which fell on the 13th-15th centuries, that the city acquired impressive Gothic churches, which were traditionally erected on the site of old Romanesque churches, no longer able to accommodate the greatly increased, due to the increased population, parishes.
Barcelona's Santa Maria del Pi Church, one of the city's three great Gothic churches, is no exception. It is known that as early as 987, a Romanesque church existed on the site of the current church, with a pine tree growing in front of its main façade. Incidentally, "pi" in Catalan means "pine".
And what does the pine tree have to do with the church? According to one version, it was in the branches of a pine tree nearby that the image of the Virgin Mary was once discovered, which was then exhibited in the church. According to another version, the pine tree, an evergreen plant, was planted in front of the church as a symbol of the eternal and enduring purity of the Mother of God.
Whether this is true or not is difficult to establish now, but the fact is indisputable: just as a thousand years ago, so now, in front of the main façade of the church on Pi Square, a pine tree still stands and turns green. That's what's so great about Barcelona, it allows you to learn history not from books, but literally see, hear and touch it.
It is clear that the pines have replaced one another over the centuries. Tradition says that one of the green beauties stood here from 1568 to the very beginning of the 19th century, and could have stood there longer if the French had not started practicing bayonet fighting techniques on the tree trunk during the Napoleonic occupation, which is why the pine tree eventually got sick and died.
Well, the trees replace one another, but the tradition remains unchanged - isn't that a miracle?
And the architecture of the church is also traditional. Yes, it is Gothic, but it is specifically Catalan Gothic, which is not at all similar to French or English examples of the style. We have already talked about this, talking about the church of "Santa Maria del Mar". Here is how Robert Hughes, an excellent connoisseur of the city, says about it. in his book "Barcelona. History of the City":
"This style prefers monoliths to voids. In the north of the Pyrenees, architects focused on stone lace and flying turrets. Not like in Catalonia, where the wall always remains connected to the ground, a crushing mass. It, the mass, is strict, opaque, prismatic, square, cylindrical, hexagonal or octagonal in plan, with cornices and belts emphasizing the horizontal. The surfaces are smooth.
Catalan architects did not want to imitate the abundance of details characteristic of northern Gothic. They liked simple walls. Their towers are crowned with flat roofs, not spires. No matter how protected Barcelona felt, no matter how invulnerable it was, the architects of its churches constantly kept the image of a fortress in mind.
No matter how high, long or wide their buildings were, they preserve the memory of a cave, of stone shelters in Pyrenees, about old Catalonia."
All of the above is fully applicable to the church of Santa Maria del Pi - take a closer look at the photographs and see that this is indeed the case. A wide and absolutely flat facade, reminiscent of a giant stone screen, stretched between two octagonal towers, seemingly even boasting of their artlessness...
And the towers, devoid of spires, and the facade itself, the stone belts on which emphasize not the vertical, but the horizontal (another paradoxical feature of Catalan Gothic), and the portal reminiscent of a cave, twelve empty niches, where at one time sculptures of the apostles were placed - everything, at first, inexperienced glance, is simple, crude and even primitive.
Of course, the blame for the fact that the apostles are no longer there lies entirely with the anarchists, who destroyed them at the beginning of the Civil War - but even if they were in good health, the facade still could not be called rich... https://www.barcelona-excurs.org/sigh...