EL BARRI DE LA RIBERA

EL BARRI DE LA RIBERA:

This nucleus of population appeared near the old church of Santa Maria and it benefited quickly from the economical rise and Catalonia expansion across the Mediterranean Sea since Jaume I’s kingdom. The population of this district originally belonged to the bourgeoisie.

BUILDING OF THE CHURCH OF SANTA MARIA DEL MAR

It was built in gothic style in the XIV century. The inhabitants built it with their own money and their own effort. They brought stones from the mountain of Montjuic without any help. The bourgeois and the nobles used the cathedral of the city for them. Inhabitants of the town couldn’t attend Mass in the Cathedral and they decided to build a church so that the rest of the town could enter. The works began in 1329 and finished in 1383. The architect who helped them to build the church played with the measures of the columns and walls. An earthquake in the XV century destroyed the ceiling of the old church. Unfortunately the ceiling fell on the believers, killing a lot of people.

THE CHURCH TODAY

Apart from weddings, christenings, visits and religious acts, another option is the music since the inner acoustic is excellent and the musical groups celebrate concerts of classical music, jazz or oriental music.

NOVEL

La Catedral del Mar by Ildefonso Falcones de Sierra: This novel explains the story of Arnau, a servant working on the fields that flees from the abuses of his feudal Sir and he takes refuge in Barcelona, where he becomes citizen and, with it, a free man. The Cathedral of the Sea is a story in which we can appreciate loyalty and revenge, treason and love, war and plague, in a world marked by the religious intolerance, the material ambition and the social segregation.

PASSEIG DEL BORN

At the moment it is one of streets that has a lot of very important and expensive shops in Barcelona. Formerly the street was situated in “Mercado del Born”. in this street there is the church of Santa Maria del Mar where there is “El fossar de les moreres, too. That is the place where there are corpses buried of the war against the ancient kingdom of Castilla.

FOSSAR DE LES MORERES

The Fossar of Moreres is a square next to the church which commemorates the Catalans fallen during the siege of Barcelona in 1714, under the War of the Spanish Succession.