You must have included Sagrada Familia in the visits you
plan to do in Barcelona. That’s ok, of course. But you may not have included a
visit to HOSPITAL DE SANT PAU. That’s wrong.
You really should try to spend some time there. It is not
just a Hospital.
It is one of the landmarks of the Modernista style and it was
conceived by one of the greatest architects that had work in Catalonia, ever.
Check Lluís Domènech i Montaner biography in
Wikipedia Biography
and you will be impressed. He is also the author of such a significant work as
Palau de la Música Catalana.
Additionally, it is quite near Sagrada Familia, so you won’t
have to spend a lot of time just moving from one place to the other.
And there is still and additional reason to visit HOSPITAL
DE SANT PAU. A four-year rehabilitation has been done to make the pavilions
recover their past glory. It still to be completed, but the main building and some of the pavilions have already been rehabilitated and are open to the public in paid visits.
In this City Council link some details on the rehabilitation
works are given. Unfortunately, there is no English translation. I will
translate just a small piece of text so you can see the rehabilitation goals: “The works in Sant Pau have been done following
the original project thought by Lluís Domènech i Muntaner and built between 1905
and 1930. A work that did not end until six years after the death of the architect,
and that could be finished because the architect’s son took charge of them. With
the aim to keep the primary essence of the buildings, and exactly as if they
were treating a human patient, the building have been taken the maximum care to
preserve every architectural detail.”
Here is the link to the visit website, which also includes relevant data regarding the Hospital history (which dates back to the Middle
Ages) and the Modernista buildings:
I will include some photos of my visit to the Hospital in a separate entry.
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