Basilica of Our Lady of the Sea, Gothic basilica in La Ribera district, Barcelona, Spain
The Basilica of Our Lady of the Sea is a Gothic church in the Sant Pere, Santa Caterina i la Ribera district of Barcelona, Spain. Three naves of equal height with slender columns placed 13 meters apart create an open space without side chapels between the buttresses.
Port workers carried stones from the Montjuïc quarry on their shoulders here to build this church. Construction spanned from 1329 to 1383, allowing a uniform Gothic design without later changes in style.
The name means Our Lady of the Sea and recalls the nearby harbor where fishermen and sailors once honored their patron saint. Today visitors experience the tall columns and clear light through the windows as typical features of Catalan church interiors from the Middle Ages.
The church stands hemmed in by the narrow streets of the Ribera, so the west front with its rose window is best seen from the Plaça de Santa Maria, a former burial ground. The Fossar de les Moreres, another former cemetery, gives a second open view of the building. The two octagonal towers do not match: the north-west one was finished in 1496, its companion only in 1902.
The window surfaces here are larger than in many other Gothic churches because the slender columns require less masonry. This ratio of support and opening allows much daylight to enter the interior space.
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