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In the heart of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, in the Ciutat Vella district, and more specifically, in the Call neighborhood (Jewish quarter), Calle Sant Felip Neri and Calle del Bisbe give access to Plaza Sant Felip Neri.
As we see in this report in La Vanguardia Readers’ Photos, it is a large small square with a lot of history in its walls, which owes its name to the church of Sant Felip Neri, which is located there.
We can find it in a hidden place in the beautiful Gothic neighborhood, being considered one of the emblematic squares of Barcelona.
The square stands on the old medieval cemetery of Montjuïc del Bisbe (bishop), destroyed during the Spanish Civil War (July 17, 1936-April 1, 1939). As the story goes, on the morning of January 30, 1938, the Italian fascist air force, Franco’s ally, bombed the city of Barcelona, ??from 9:00 a.m. to 11:20 a.m. uninterruptedly.
The church of Sant Felip Neri, in the hands of the Republican Generalitat, served as a refuge for people from the neighborhood and from other places in Spain, who were fleeing fascist terror.
The bombs sank the church and buried the children who sought refuge in the basement. Twenty of them died. The bombing did not stop, and evacuation efforts were hampered by bombs; Up to 42 people were killed that morning and more than a hundred were injured. The square was devastated: only the façade of the church remained standing, with the remains of the shrapnel still visible today.
For years, Francoist propaganda spread the story that the signs on the façade corresponded to the bullets fired to shoot the priests of the church and to cover up, with this version, their responsibility in the massacre.
Throughout the 1950s, the municipal Administration rebuilt the square with Renaissance elements from other bombed areas, such as the old Cathedral neighborhood, currently Plaza Nova, and the fountain, and gave it the appearance it currently presents, consolidating the interventions that originated the Gothic Quarter.
The most emblematic building in the square is the baroque-style church, which gives its name to this place. It is surrounded by Renaissance-style houses, where the headquarters of the old houses of the guilds of calders (boilermakers), currently Institut Escola Sant Felip Neri, and sabaters (shoemakers) were located, the latter being the headquarters of the Museu del Calçat ( Footwear Museum), inaugurated in 1970 and closed in 2015.
We also find the old convent attached to the church that belonged to the Congregation of Secular Clergy of the Oratory, of the order of the Congregation of the Oratory of San Felipe Neri, the “felipons”, currently the kitchen and dining room of the Institut Escola Sant Felip Neri. In the center of the square there is a fountain (currently without water, due to the persistent drought), with an octagonal base.
The reconstruction project of the square was commissioned to the municipal architect Adolfo Florensa Ferrer, born in Lleida on May 15, 1889, and died on July 14, 1968 at the age of 79.
He decided to recreate a square and adapt two Renaissance facades of two buildings that had not been rebuilt in order to create two accesses to the square from Cathedral Avenue (Montjuïc del Bisbe Street) and from Sant Felip Neri Street. Finally, he recreated the façade of the entrance on Sant Felip Neri street, taking advantage of elements from the old buildings.
The Sant Felip Neri square is located in a pedestrian area. If you decide to visit it, I recommend a 10 to 15 minute walking route, starting from Plaza de Catalunya to Plaza de Sant Felip Neri.
It is a beautiful tour, short but intense, where they found art, music and history and, above all, at the end of the tour, at some moments they will have the feeling of living in medieval times in Barcelona.
We will start the tour from Plaza de Catalunya, going down Avinguda del Portal de l’Àngel, Carrer dels Arcs, to Plaça Nova (former Plaça de la Catedral), a mandatory stop, where we will find the Cathedral (Gothic style, 150 years old the works will last). Next to the vestiges of the old Roman wall of Barcelona, ??you will find a small ramp that leads to Carrer del Bisbe, keep walking until you find on your right a beautiful and small square called Plaça de Garriga i Bachs, I advise you to have fun in them.
Continue along Carrer de Montjuïc del Bisbe, (one of the two accesses to the square), a graceful labyrinthine street, narrow and short, that ends in Sant Felip Neri square.
Once in the square, you will be able to appreciate that it is a romantic corner of Barcelona, ??which invites you to get lost, and if you have time, you could discover the secrets it hides, as well as the two sides of the square, “that of terror.” and that of beauty.”
The square is surrounded by six Renaissance-style houses, with some historical elements that make it especially attractive.
Access to the square is limited from Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., because the Institut Escola Sant Felip Neri uses it as a school playground.
The baroque church, one of the few buildings of this style in Barcelona, ??was built between 1721 and 1752, by the architect Pere Bertran assisted by Salvador Ausich.
It has a temple attached to the house of the Congregation of the Oratory, founded in 1673, born as a dependency of the convent of the Philipons.
The interior of the temple is divided into three bodies with a curved crown that becomes semicircular in the central, higher body. The portal, presided over by the image of the saint, is rectangular, with a semicircular pediment that frames a shield.
Several baroque and neoclassical altars stand out from the time, such as those of San Felipe Neri and San Raimundo de Peñafort, made by Ignasi Vergara, the Adoration of the Kings, by Salvador Gurri i Corominas, born in Tona, a town and municipality in the province of Barcelona. , (1749 – Barcelona -1819) was a Catalan sculptor, and that of the Nativity, by Ramón Amadeu (1745 – Barcelona, ??1821) (also, Catalan sculptor).
Furthermore, at a later time, some large paintings by Joan Llimona i Bruguera (Barcelona, ??June 23, 1860 – idem, February 23, 1926), a Catalan painter, were installed, which hang from the ends of the transept. One of them on the gate of the sacristy door represents the mass of Sant Felip Neri (1901, and the other of Sant Felip Neri surrounded by children, priests and elderly people (1902), which is located on the gate of the other door.
There is a third painting of Sant Felip Neri that tradition says that Joan Llimona was inspired by Antoni Gaudí to paint the image of the saint. Judge for yourselves.
The church is accessible for free only during mass hours, Sundays at 12 noon. At 1 p.m., organ music concert, lasting approximately 45 minutes, allowing you to enjoy its magnificent acoustics. Monday to Friday from 3pm. to 6 p.m. Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. The entrance price is €6.
You cannot visit the Cloister. According to what they inform us, they are preparing it to be able to visit it. As for the refuge, it cannot be visited. They say that the day he was hit by a tram Antoni Gaudí was going to the church, which was the place where he went every day to say his prayers.
The coppersmiths (an ancient trade of the person or craftsmen who made cauldrons and other metal things, and distributed them throughout the towns through the street sales system) of Barcelona in the 16th century commissioned the Renaissance façade for their building from a master builder of their time, name unknown.
The guild opted for modernity, not only artistic but also ideological, because in the 18th century they defended their freedoms with arms against the troops of Felipe de Borbón.
The guild building managed to survive the Bourbon bombs of 1714, but could not resist the opening of Gran Vía A de la Reforma, the current Vía Laietana.
The façade arrived at the Plaza de Sant Felip Neri in the early 1950s, when the remodeling of the plaza was carried out. It had previously undergone six moves, and only at the last moment, the City Council decided to save the façade, which was rebuilt in 1911 into a public building.
This composition has a single vertical axis, it includes two openings, one on each floor, with lintels and frames decorated with Renaissance moldings.
Currently, it is occupied by the Institut Escola Sant Felip Neri, considered by the neighbors as the neighborhood school, converting the Plaza of this outdoor space into the “institute patio”, in which children play, run, explore. , etc., enjoying their well-deserved free time, oblivious to the events of the past.
The Congregation of the Oratory of Sant Felip Neri is made up of secular and lay priests with a particularity; They carry the spiritual direction of the parishioners. A congregation founded by Sant Felip Neri where its members are known by the name “felipons”. They have a very discreet presence but they spread the word of God very well. They have a very relevant aptitude and that is to accompany.
Unlike other religious orders, the felipons have neither provincials nor generals. Each oratory has its autonomy. The convent attached to the church hides several architectural treasures within.
The baroque cloister is closed to the public. It was reserved for the members of the religious community of the felipons who lived there (currently, they have all died, due to their advanced age), which is now accessed by the students of the institute who use it as a kitchen and dining room.
On one of the upper floors of the cloister, as we have been told, a fabulous library appears wrapped in dust on its shelves.
The House of the Shoemakers’ Guild is a building that was the headquarters of the Footwear Museum between 1970 and 2015. It is a reconstruction from 1963 of a Renaissance building from 1565, originally located on the disappeared Corribia street. This work is registered as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest (BCIL).
The name of the building refers to its original promoters and tenants, the Guild of Master Shoemakers of Barcelona and its guild, San Marcos Evangelista, established in 1202 by the privilege of Peter II of Aragon.
The building was built in 1565 at number 21 Calle de la Corribia, on a pre-existing Gothic building. The estate was remodeled in 1740.
Mainly two types of objects were exhibited there. On the one hand, reproductions of shoes from Roman times to the 18th century and, on the other, authentic shoes from the 18th century to the present day, which in some cases belonged to famous Catalan people, such as the musician Pau Casals. There was also a shoe last (equivalent to a size 168) of the same dimensions as the foot of the statue that crowns the Columbus Monument in Barcelona. The Barcelona Footwear Museum had to close its doors at the end of 2015.
It is a building between party walls with a ground floor, main floor and two floors. The main façade is made up of three different compositions, corresponding to the three façades moved here to fill the entire width of this side of the square.
The composition on the right corresponds to the original main façade of the House of the Shoemakers’ Guild on Corribia Street. It is balanced on two vertical axes of portals and balconies with large openings and a balcony that encompasses several doors and windows on the façade on the first floor.
The middle composition has very small openings and lacks decorations, so it was probably the rear façade of the Cobblers’ Guild House.
The third composition, located on the left, comes from another transferred building, the House of the Boilermakers Guild,
composed of a single vertical axis, which allows the square to communicate with the street of Montjuïc del Bisbe.
In the center of the square there is a unique fountain with an octagonal base, which together with the tree, apparently many years old, give it a final touch as it had discovered, the “square of the circle” of this unrepeatable square.
The square is a corner to get lost and relax for a while, contemplating the captivating architecture of the surroundings, with buildings that were not there and that are now, with access that seems old but is relatively new.
