Iglesia de San Agustín (Barcelona)
History
The construction of the Ciutadella Fortress from 1716 onwards affected the
convent of Sant Agustí Vell, located in the Ribera neighbourhood of Barcelona. Faced with
the insistence of the Augustinians to find a new worthy site for their convent,
in 1727 King Philip V ceded them some land between Hospital and Sant Pau
streets, resulting in the demolition of seven pre-existing houses. The project
for the new convent, larger than the original one, was designed by the master
builder Pere Bertran, who was also responsible for the partial destruction of
Sant Agustí Vell.
Although the first stone was solemnly laid on 12 December 1728, a series of
disputes with the parish church of Pi and other convents in the neighbourhood
meant that the work on the Augustinian monastery was halted several times. In
1748, the architect and sculptor Pere Costa, a member of the Royal Academy of
San Fernando, presented the definitive project for the main façade of the
church. Ferran VI and the Captain General Marquès de la Mina gave the final
impetus to the works, directed by Bernardí Padallàs and Josep Pi, until the
definitive transfer of the convent took place on 30 December 1750, but the
works continued until around 1800.
During the Napoleonic occupation (1808-1814), the convent had to host, for two
years, the battle of the Walloon Guards and, after the expulsion of the monks
in 1813, the church was converted into a barn. In 1814, the soldiers left and
the brothers began restoration work, but they were accused of having
collaborated with the occupiers. As a result of the generalised burning of
convents in Barcelona on 25th July 1835, the convent was assaulted, ransacked
and set on fire by the revolutionaries. After these episodes, and due to the
disentailment of Mendizabal in 1836, the church was erected as a parish church.
The poor state of the building, however, forced the new parish church to be
established in the neighbourhood and rival of Pi at the end of the spring of
1839, when the architects Josep Mas i Vila and Francesc Vallès were contracted
to build the church. It was probably at this time that the old presbytery
square was transformed into a semicircular enclosure with Corinthian columns
and crowned by a quarter sphere.
The old library was transformed into the Odeon theatre (1850-1887), after the
Fonda de Sant Agustín and other rooms were converted into dipòsits municipals
de mals endreços, furniture and objects that arrived at other convents
saquejats.
In 1840, the convent's warehouses were acquired by Manuel de Lerena,
administrator and director of the Barcelona foundry and machine construction
company, better known as ‘La Barcelonesa’, which converted the premises into a
large factory. Around 1845, Lerena withdrew from the company, which became
known as Tous, Ascacíbar i Cia, the main partners of which were Nicolau Tous i
Soler and the Indian Celdoni Ascacíbar. In 1847, it acquired properties numbers
89 and 90 (now 34-36) on Carrer de Sant Pau, which had been owned by the
convent, and in 1855, it merged with Valentí Esparó's company to form La
Maquinista Terrestre i Marítima, which was to build a new factory in
Barceloneta. At the beginning of the 1860s, the workshops were demolished to
make way for a set of buildings for subsidised housing, an urban planning
operation favoured by the opening of Carrer de Mendizábal (now known as Junta
de Comerç).
In 1855, the Town Council expropriated the atrium of the church and demolished
the old wickerwork to open the new Plaça de l'Igualtat, now Sant Agustí square.
In 1860, the painter Claudi Lorenzale i Sugrañes, recently appointed director
of the Llotja School, decorated the sphere room of the presbytery with a Marian
glory, following a sketch presented by the then-young painter Fortuny. The
column altar under the quarter sphere was built and decorated by the architect
Elies Rogent in 1864. In 1880, the nau in Carrer de l'Arc de Sant Agustí became
home to the Filles de la Caritat de Sant Vicenç de Paül school for girls and
young workers. In 1925, the interior of the church was restored by the company
Vilaró i Valls, which was responsible for repainting walls and woodwork and
cleaning the stone elements. However, between 19 and 20 July 1936, the church
was set on fire and looted during the first disturbances of the Spanish Civil
War, destroying the presbytery, the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament (decorated
between 1904 and 1906 by Joaquim Torres Garcia) and the gelos. It was occupied by
the Graphic Arts Union. In addition, the Town Council demolished the wing of
Carrer de l'Arc de Sant Agustí, which housed the girls' school. Although its
total demolition had been ordered, the municipal architect Joaquim Vilaseca i
Rivera managed to stop it, arguing that it could be used as a concert hall.
After the war, the interior of the church was extensively remodelled, although
the authorship and direction of the work have not yet been revealed. On 7
November 1971, the church of Sant Agustí was the scene of the constitution of
the Assembly of Catalonia, an anti-Francoist platform that brought together the
opposition parties, trade unions and Catalan political and social
organisations. In 2011 an event was held to commemorate its 40th anniversary.
Architecture
The main façade of the church, designed by Pere Costa, was left unfinished, so
that while the lower part is clad in regular ashlars of Montjuïc stone, the
upper part preserves the brickwork and irregular stonework. The lower part has
five large semicircular arches leading to the portico, supported on
machicolations adorned with monumental half-columns of composite order that
support the weight of a rhythmic entablature. The coat of arms of King Philip V
is sculpted above the central arch. The portico, the same width as the church,
is 33.80 m long and 5.50 m deep, covered with groin vaults with stone arches.
This portico houses an entrance door to each nave (three in total) crowned by a
segmental arch with moulded mullions.
The interior of the church, of large dimensions, has a central nave 56.50 m long and 14.50 m wide covered with a barrel vault with lunettes to which large windows open. This vault is supported by large pilasters with an Attic stone base and Corinthian capital decorated with the mitre and crosier of Saint Augustine. This central nave is flanked on each side by two side naves covered with groin vaults with five chapels per side covered with domes, measuring a total of 9.90 m wide. Above the side aisles, there are wide tribunes connected at the foot of the building by means of the elevated heart. These tribunes are enclosed by cut wooden balustrades which, before they were destroyed, formed part of the imposing latticework that covered the whole of the former arches. The transept is crowned with an elliptical dome on shells adorned with radii and illuminated by eight windows. The drum of this dome is moulded with a continuous entablature supported by corbels in the form of a volute. At the chancel is the semicircular presbytery, decorated with six pilasters and six monumental Corinthian columns on a podium. Above this colonnade rests a quarter-sphere decorated with quarters and Pompeian motifs, under a coffered vault. In the middle of the chancel, there is a baldachin supported by four composite columns that holds the image of Saint Augustine and a smaller baldachin with the image of the Virgin of Montserrat. The entire chancel is polychromed and gilded.
The presbytery is flanked by two chapels of identical width in the side aisles, dedicated to the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the Virgin of Solitude. Both chapels are covered by three bays with barrel vaults on pilasters. Access to these chapels is from the transept through two stone portals framed by a Doric portico with entablature and triangular pediment, decorated with sculptural reliefs of an almost popular character. Behind the presbytery is the sacristy, measuring 14.50 x 9.8 m and crowned by a star-shaped vault.
Attached to the epistle façade and adjoining the courtyard of the neighbouring buildings, one of the cloister galleries has been preserved. This space, which had been designed to distribute the main rooms of the community, has three floors: the first, opened by large segmental arches supported by Tuscan columns; the second, opened by smaller segmental arches supported by Ionic columns on a podium decorated with quarters; and the third, with alternating windows and balconies. At present, all these openings are closed off and the interior houses the parish rooms, illuminated by irregular windows of no architectural importance.
The gospel façade, which is the result of the demolition during the Civil War
of the eastern wing of the convent, occupied by a girls' school, still shows
the outlines of the vaults that covered the old Chapel of the Good Death and
the tombs gallery. In a recent restoration (2009), the enclosing walls were
covered with mortar and the traces of the disappeared building were left in
exposed brickwork. Between the buttresses of the nave, the lanterns of the
domes that cover the side chapels are visible, crowned with green glazed tile
roof tiles. The dome that crowns the transept can also be seen, with the walls
covered with mortar, except for the windows and corner chains finished in
stone. The dome is covered by a multi-coloured glazed roof.
An image of Sant Ponç, which was originally in the chapel of the Hospital de la
Santa Creu in Barcelona, is venerated in the church. Santa Rita is also
traditionally venerated on 22 May.
At the church of Sant Agustí Nou, religious services are held in Catalan,
Spanish and Tagalog, and it is a meeting place for the Filipino Catholic
community in Barcelona.
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