Santa Maria del Mar (Barcelona)

Santa Maria del Mar (Sainte-Marie of the Sea) is a church of Barcelona in Spain, located in the district of Ribera. The basilica, popularly known like the Catedral of Ribera (or Catedral del Mar ), was built between 1329 and 1383 in Gothic style Catalan by the Architecte Berenguer de Montagut in collaboration with Ramon Despuig.

History

Construction began the March 25th 1329, on the site of an existing church, on a place of old worship chrétien.très. A Nécropole romano-Christian woman was revealed by Fouille S carried out in 1960-61 below the church.

It is established that work would have to belong to the Paroissien S, only material persons in charge of the temple; the rule is all the more remarkable as it is still applied. It seems that all the inhabitants of Ribera took an active part in construction; a fundamental contribution was made by the dockers (“bastaixos”) of the port of Ribera, which transported the blocks of stone, one by one, of the career of Montjuïc or the beach where the boats discharged them to the building site from the church.

In the neighborhoods of 1350 the walls, the side chapels and the frontage were supplemented. In 1379, about to complete the Vault fourth Span, the scaffolding took fire and the stones were seriously damaged. Finally, the Keystone last was placed on November 3rd, 1383 and the feastday of the Assomption of the following year (August 15th 1834) the inaugural mass was celebrated.

In 1428 a Earthquake caused the collapse of the Rosace. A new rosette, in Gothic style blazing, was completed in the year 1459 and poses it stained glasses supplemented the following year.

The furnace bridge Baroque as well as the majority of the ornaments and the imagery added during the centuries were burned by the fire from July 19th to 20th 1936, at the time of the Spanish civil war.

The church

Outside

Seen outside, the building presents a massive and robust aspect, which does not reflect what one will find inside. The predominance of horizontal lines and walls without large openings nor decorations is total. One with the visual impression of a compact block, without the sides of walls of depth different typical from the European Gothic.

The principal Façade is rythmée by the two octagonal towers (the same form that have the columns inside) and both powerful Contrefort S which surround the rosette and give the feeling of the amplitude of the interior vault. One observes two horizontal sections, marked clearly by mouldings, whereas in the turns horizontality is underlined by galleries. The lower part is centered on the Portail, while in the upper part the rosette has at her sides two large windows placed between the buttresses and the turns.

The feeling of austerity is perceived even more in the side walls, walls without decorations which fill space between the buttresses (thus allowing the presence of the interior vaults). The design is quite different from that slim of the French Gothic, with here an complete absence of propping up. Horizontally, three stages clearly are noticed. The lower stage corresponds to the side chapels, with narrow windows, for each vault, three windows separating the buttresses.

Two doors open on the sides, the door of Sombrerers and that of Moreres. A door was successively open in the apse, the door of Born.

Interior

The interior includes/understands three Nef S, with Déambulatoire and without cross. Although one is in the presence of three naves, it seems that the architect wanted to make test the same feeling of space that one would have with a single nave. To give this impression, it moved away the Pilier S (15 meters of distance) and limited the difference in height between the naves (the height of the side aisles corresponds to 7/8èmes of the central nave).

The central nave is lit by oculi open between the galleries of the central and side nave. These oculi becomes windows between the columns of presbyterium, which almost entirely occupy space available and contribute to reinforce the effect of the columns with a half-circle of light. The side aisles receive the light of windows (one by span), not too large, which contribute to the lighting of the central nave.

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