Casa Provincial de Maternitat i Expòsits de Barcelona, Former maternity hospital in Les Corts district, Barcelona, Spain.
Casa Provincial de Maternitat i Expòsits de Barcelona is a former maternity and foundling home in the Les Corts neighborhood, made up of several pavilions spread across a large open plot. The buildings reflect two distinct architectural styles, with some pavilions showing the decorative features of Catalan modernism and others the plainer lines of rationalism.
The institution traces its origins to an old foundling home in Ciutat Vella, which moved in 1878 to the Can Cavaller estate in Les Corts when the original building could no longer meet demand. New pavilions were added over the following decades until the complex reached its current form around the middle of the 20th century.
The name 'Expòsits' refers to foundlings, children left at the institution's gate by families who could not care for them, and this history is still visible in some preserved details on site. Today, the gardens are used by people from the neighborhood for walks and leisure, giving the former care facility a new daily role.
The grounds can be entered from both the Travessera de Les Corts side and the Diagonal side, and a path runs through the whole complex from one end to the other. Since the visit is mostly outdoors, comfortable shoes and a dry day make the walk considerably more enjoyable.
A wooden rotating cradle set into one of the outer walls allowed mothers to leave a newborn anonymously without being seen, and it remained in use until 1931. This type of device was once common across Europe but is now rarely found in its original form, making this one of the few surviving examples.
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