Barcelona Guide
Barri Gòtic
Plaça de Sant Just
Address: Behind the Ajuntament, off c/de la Ciutat
Plaça de Sant Just is a medieval gem, sporting a restored fourteenth-century fountain and flanked by unassuming palaces. Apart from the excellent Café de l'Acadèmia, which puts out dining tables on the square, the highlight here is the Església dels Sants Just i Pastor (open for Mass Mon– Sat 7.30pm, Sun at noon, and occasional other times), whose very plain stone facade belies the rich stained glass and elaborate chapel decoration inside (enter from the back, at c/de la Ciutat; the main doors on Pl. de Sant Just are open less often).
The church's name commemorates the city's earliest Christian martyrs. It's claimed (though there's no real evidence) that this is the oldest parish church site in Barcelona, held to have first supported a foundation at the beginning of the ninth century; the restored interior, though, dates from the mid-fourteenth century. In the late Middle Ages it was the only place where Jews could swear legal oaths in deals with Christians, and even today a last will and testament declared verbally here has the full force of a written document.