Barcelona City Hall

Barcelona City Hall
19th-century neoclassical facade
Map
General information
Architectural styleGothic, Neoclassical
AddressPl. de Sant Jaume, 1, 08002 Barcelona, Espagne
Current tenantsBarcelona City Council
Construction started1369
Completed1402; 622 years ago (1402)
Renovated1847
ClientConsell de Cent
OwnerCity Council of Barcelona
Design and construction
Architect(s)Arnau Bargués
Renovating team
Architect(s)Josep Mas i Vila

Barcelona City Hall (Catalan: Casa de la Ciutat de Barcelona, Spanish: Casa de la Ciudad de Barcelona) is the seat of Barcelona City Council. It is situated in the Plaça Sant Jaume in the Gothic Quarter, opposite the Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya housing the regional government.

Medieval Gothic facade. Note the mutilation on the far right of the facade, caused by the addition of the neoclassical facade

The building maintains the Saló de Cent, where the Consell de Cent which governed the city met in the Middle Ages. The architect Arnau Bargués designed its Gothic facade, which was built between 1399 and 1402.[1]

Josep Mas i Vila designed the current neoclassical facade, built between 1830 and 1847. When the church that is the namesake of the square was demolished in 1823, Mas was tasked with making a facade worthy of facing the Renaissance-era Generalitat building. The previous facade was to be sacrificed until a campaign by the Reial Acadèmia de Bones Lletres de Barcelona and the Reial Acadèmia Catalana de Belles Arts de Sant Jordi. The medieval door remains, with a notable mutilation.[1]

In 2008, routine work on the city hall found Gothic and Renaissance paintings on the ceiling, underneath more modern paintings. In 2017, the council put €2.4 million towards the study and conservation of these paintings.[2]

  1. ^ a b Casinos, Xavi (9 January 2022). "La puerta gótica mutilada" [The mutilated Gothic door]. La Vanguardia (in Spanish). Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  2. ^ Lara, Oriol (3 April 2021). "Barcelona restaura unas obras góticas con el primer escudo pintado de la ciudad". El Periódico de Catalunya (in Spanish). Retrieved 9 February 2022.