Parròquia Basílica de Santa Maria del Pi

Parròquia Basílica de Santa Maria del Pi stands in Barcelona’s Barri Gòtic as a fifteenth-century church of Catalan Gothic architecture. Its name means Saint Mary of the Pine.

The present building rose mainly between 1319 and 1391, replacing a Romanesque church recorded here in the tenth century. Its broad single nave measures about 54 metres long, 16.5 metres wide and 12.2 metres high. Seven vaulted sections and side chapels create an open interior between the supporting pillars.

An octagonal bell tower reaches roughly 54 metres above the surrounding Barcelona streets. Six bells hang inside, including Antònia, which weighs more than 1,800 kilograms and measures 1.4 metres across. The main façade combines a Gothic arch, a sculpted tympanum and a large rose window. The rose window dates from 1940, after the original disappeared in the 1936 fire.

Inside, an alabaster high altar from 1967 stands beside a 3.3-metre statue of Santa Maria del Pi. The church also houses a museum with silverware, goldware and funerary coats of arms unique to Catalonia. Stained glass includes surviving work from 1718 and a Magi scene above the Door of Avemaria. Plaça del Pi and Plaça Sant Josep Oriol frame the church, with local paintings displayed there at weekends.