Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TOP SIGHT
LA CATEDRAL & AROUND
Barcelona's central place of worship presents a magnificent image. The richly
decorated main facade, laced with gargoyles and the stone intricacies you
would expect of northern European Gothic, sets it quite apart from other
churches in Barcelona. The facade was actually added in 1870, although the
rest of the building was built between 1298 and 1460. The other facades are
sparse in decoration, and the octagonal, flat-roofed towers are a clear remind-
er that, even here, Catalan Gothic architectural principles prevailed.
Lonely Planet / Getty IMAGES ©
The Interior
The interior is a broad, soaring space divided into a central nave and two aisles by lines of
elegant, slim pillars. The cathedral was one of the few churches in Barcelona spared by the
anarchists in the civil war, so its ornamentation, never overly lavish, is intact.
Coro
