Barcelona Guide
Barri Gòtic
Església de Santa María del Pi
Address: Plaça Sant Josep Oriol, Barri Gòtic
Opening time: Mon– Sat 8.30am–1pm & 4.30–9pm, Sun 9am–2pm & 5–9pm
Website: www.parroquiadelpi.com
With the cathedral area and Plaça del Rei sucking in every visitor at some point during the day, the third focus of attraction in the Barri Gòtic is to the west, around the church of Santa María del Pi – five minutes' walk from the cathedral or just two minutes from the Ramblas.
The fourteenth-century Església de Santa María del Pi stands at the heart of three delightful little squares. Burned out in 1936, and restored in the 1960s, the church boasts a Romanesque door but is mainly Catalan-Gothic in style, with just a single nave with chapels between the buttresses. The rather plain interior only serves to set off some marvellous stained glass, the most impressive of which is contained within a ten-metre-wide rose window, often claimed (rather boldly) as the largest in the world. The church flanks Plaça Sant Josep Oriol, the prettiest of the three squares, an ideal place to take an outdoor coffee, listen to the buskers or browse the weekend artists' market (Sat 11am–8pm, Sun 11am–2pm).