Barcelona Sinagoga Shlomo Ben Adret

Barcelona Sinagoga Shlomo Ben Adret: The main synagogue of the Call until the pogrom in 1391, this tiny basement building lay abandoned for many years until its rediscovery and restoration in 1996. Once again a working synagogue, one of the two rooms is a place of worship with several interesting artefacts, the other holds the 14th-century dyeing vats used by the family that lived here until their status as crypto-Jews was discovered.

The façade of the Barcelona Sinagoga Shlomo Ben Adret building, slightly skewing the street, fulfils religious requirements by which the synagogue has to face Jerusalem; the two windows at knee height allow light to enter from that direction.

Barcelona Sinagoga Shlomo Ben Adret Address

C/Marlet 5
Area Barrí Gòtic
Transport Metro Jaume I or Liceu .
Telephone 93 317 07 90
Open 11am-2.30pm, 4-6.30pm Mon-Fri; 11am-2.30pm Sat, Sun.
Admission €2.

Barcelona Santa Maria del Mar

Barcelona Santa Maria del Mar:
One of the most perfect surviving examples of the Catalan Gothic style, this graceful basilica stands out for its characteristic horizontal lines, plain surfaces, square buttresses and flat-topped octagonal towers. Its superb unity of style is down to the fact that it was built relatively quickly, with construction taking just 55 years (1329 to 1384). Named after Mary as patroness of sailors, it was built on the site of a small church known as Santa Maria d'Arenys (sand), for its position close to the sea.


In the broad, Barcelona Santa Maria del Mar, single-nave interior, two rows of perfectly proportioned columns soar up to fan vaults, creating an atmosphere of space around the light-flooded altar. There's also superb stained glass, especially the great 15th-century rose window above the main door. The original window fell down during an earthquake, killing 25 people. The incongruous modern window at the other end was a 1997 addition, belatedly celebrating the Olympics.

It's perhaps thanks to the group of anti-clerical anarchists who set the church ablaze for 11 days in 1936 that its superb features can be appreciated - without the wooden Baroque furniture that clutters so many Spanish churches, the simplicity of Barcelona Santa Maria del Mar lines can emerge. On Saturdays, the Barcelona Santa Maria del Mar basilica is in great demand for weddings, and it's a traditional venue for concerts, particularly the Requiem Mass at Easter and Handel's Messiah at Christmas.

Barcelona Santa Maria del Mar Address

Plaça de Santa Maria
Area Born & St Pere
Transport Metro Jaume I .
Telephone 93 310 23 90
Open 9am-1.30pm, 4.30-8pm Mon-Sat; 10am-1.30pm, 4.30-8pm Sun.
Admission free.

Barcelona Cementiri Sud-Oest

Barcelona Cementiri Sud-Oest: Designed by Leandro Albareda in 1880, this enormous necropolis, sits at the side of the motorway out of town, and is a daily reminder to commuters of their own mortality. The dead were originally placing them in four sections: one for Catholics, one for Protestants, one for non-Christians and a fourth for aborted foetuses. Barcelona Cementiri Sud-Oest now stretches over the south-west corner of the mountain, with family tombs stacked five or six storeys high.


Many, especially those belonging to the gypsy community, are a riot of colour and flowers. The Fossar de la Pedrera memorial park remembers those fallen from the International Brigades and the Catalan martyrs from the Civil War. There is also a Holocaust memorial and a mausoleum to the former president of the Generalitat Lluís Companys.

The cemetery Barcelona Cementiri Sud-Oest is much visited, in particular on All Saints' Day, when the roads are clogged solid with cars. In 2007, modernisation and expansion of the facilities started in order to provide more parking space, flower stalls, a new entrance and, eventually, a new home for the city's collection of funeral carriages at the Barcelona Cementiri Sud-Oest.

Barcelona Cementiri Sud-Oest Address

C/Mare de Déu de Port 54-58
Area Montjuic & Poble Sec
Transport Bus 38 .
Telephone 93 223 16 83
Open 9am-5pm daily.
Admission free.

Barcelona Catedral

Barcelona Catedral: Construction on Barcelona's Gothic cathedral began in 1298. However, thanks to civil wars and plagues, construction continued at a pace that makes the Sagrada Família project look snappy: although the architects remained faithful to the vertical Nordic lines of the 15th-century plans, the façade and central spire were not finished until 1913. Indeed, the façcade continues to cause problems: although it's one of the newest parts of the building, it's crumbling, and roughly a third of it is being taken down and painstakingly rebuilt with the same Montserrat stone that was used for the original. For the time being, the building is shrouded in scaffolding, plastic and signs asking visitors to 'Sponsor a Stone'.

Inside, the Barcelona cathedral is a cavernous and slightly forbidding place, but many paintings, sculptures and an intricately carved central choir (built in the 1390s) all shine through the gloom. The cathedral is dedicated to the city's patron saint Eulàlia, an outspoken 13-year-old martyred by the Romans in AD 303; her remains lie in the dramatically lit crypt, in an alabaster tomb carved with torture scenes from her martyrdom (being rolled in a nail-filled barrel down what is today the Baixada de Santa Eulàlia, for instance). To one side, there's a lift to the roof; take it for a magnificent view of the Old City.

The glorious light-filled cloister of the Barcelona Cathedral is famous for its 13 fierce geese - one for each year of Eulàlia's life - and half-erased floor engravings, detailing which guild paid for which side chapel: scissors for the tailors, shoes for the cobblers and so on. The cathedral museum, housed is in the 17th-century chapterhouse, includes paintings and sculptures by Gothic masters Jaume Huguet, Bernat Martorell and Bartolomé Bermejo.

A combined ticket (visita especial) has a timetable intended to keep tourists and worshippers from bothering one another. From 1-4.30pm, the entry fee is obligatory; howeber, ticket-holders have the run of the cloister, church, choir and lift, and can enter some chapels and take photos (normally prohibited).

Address
Pla de la Seu
Area Barrí Gòtic
Transport Metro Jaume I .
Telephone 93 342 82 60
Open Combined ticket 1pm-5pm Mon-Sat; 2-4.45pm Sun. Without combined ticket ( Church ) 8am-12.45pm, 5.15-7pm Mon-Fri; 8am-12.45pm, 5.15-6pm Sat; 8am-12.45pm, 5.15-6pm Sun. ( Cloister ) 9am-12.30pm, 5-7pm daily. ( Museum ) 10am-12.30pm, 5.15-7pm daily.
Admission Combined ticket €5. Church & cloister free. Museum €2. Lift to roof €2.50. Choir €2.20.