Hospital de Sant Pau

Domenech i Montaner designed Sant Pau from 1902 as a replacement for a medieval hospital, and he rejected the corridor block in favour of separate pavilions for different conditions, set at angles across nine city blocks in gardens, connected by underground tunnels for staff and supplies, on the reasoning that isolation limited infection and that surroundings affected recovery. The pavilions are covered in mosaic, sculpture and ceramic, with domed and vaulted interiors in coloured tile that look nothing like hospital wards. It functioned as a hospital until 2009, when clinical services moved to a modern building alongside, and the complex was restored and opened to visitors from 2014. UNESCO listed it with the Palau in 1997.

History

The Hospital de la Santa Creu was founded in 1401, when six small medieval hospitals merged, and its first building near the centre of Barcelona went up from 1401 to 1450, with a convalescent house added in the 17th century; those old buildings now hold the Escola Massana art school and the National Library of Catalonia. As the city grew, a new hospital by Lluís Domènech i Montaner was begun in the early 1900s, paid for by the banker Pau Gil, whose name was added as Sant Pau, and of the 48 buildings in the plan 27 were built, up to 1930. In 1997 it became a World Heritage Site with the Palau de la Música Catalana, it served as a hospital into the 2000s, when a new building to the north took over, and after restoration it reopened in 2014 as a museum and cultural centre (Wikipedia, Hospital de Sant Pau).

Highlights

• The pavilion layout - separate buildings set at angles across nine blocks.
• The tiled interiors - vaulted wards in coloured ceramic and mosaic.
• The service tunnels - underground connections between the pavilions.
• The gardens - planted grounds designed as part of the treatment.

When to go

Year-round; the complex is largely outdoors between buildings, so dry weather helps. It is far less crowded than the Gaudi sites and rarely requires advance booking except at weekends.

Things to know

Only some pavilions are open, with others used as offices and institutions. The site is large and involves considerable walking outdoors. The modern hospital alongside is visible and unattractive.

Nearby

The Sagrada Familia is a fifteen-minute walk down the avenue; the Eixample grid surrounds it.

Key facts