25 Feb What I learned last Friday
Today we’ll tell you a little about two of the “four” cathedrals in Bracelona: the Basilica of Santa Maria del Pi and the Cathedral of Santa Eulàlia i de la Santa Creu. The construction of the bell tower in the Basilica of Santa Maria del Pi is connected to a medieval superstition: people believed that great buildings were built with help from the devil, who would ask for the soul of the architect in return!
After helping on the construction, the devil noticed he had been fooled by the architect so he could avoid giving his soul away. The devil got angry and marked the 100th step of the stairway with his paw. Since then, visitor search for the step with that mark!
The Cathedral of Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia is the the seat of the archbishopric in Barcelona, hence its actual cathedral category. According to the legend, the square it lies on was an old pine forest where Saint Jaume preached for the first time when he arrived in the city. It was built between the 13th and 15th centuries, in Gothic style.
However, in the 19th century, due to the World Exhibition of Barcelona in 1888, banker Manuel Girona i Agrafel funded its neo-Gothic facade, which was only finished by the first decade of the 20th century. It took 700 years to build the cathedral!