La Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, #69, Barcelona, 2021
“Cathedral Of The Sea”
That’s the nickname of this 14th-century basilica, given its location not far from the Mediterranean Sea in the city of Barcelona. It is also the title of a very popular 2006 historical novel by the Spanish author, Ildefonso Falcones about the basilica’s construction. The book is a fun summer travel read, although maybe a bit “lite” for those hungry for more in-depth information about how these old cathedrals were planned and erected.
Of the multitude of older religious structures of Barcelona–for those in the know, anyway–Santa Maria del Mar is surely the people’s favorite… yes, even out-polling the much larger Barcelona Cathedral. (Sagrada Familia is in its own unique and bizarre category!)
Why?
Well, first and foremost, Santa Maria del Mar is a superb example of pure Catalan Gothic architecture… and it’s elegant in it’s simplicity… and it was built in a mere 54 years (twice as fast as the medieval norm)… and it’s construction was funded by the people of Barcelona, not by the powerful Church or uber-rich royalty… and much hands-on labor was donated by workers, most notably the bastaixos, or stevedores, from the nearby port, who hauled the heavy stone blocks from the quarries on Montjuic to the building site (back then, a 6km trip each way).
[NOTE: For a really interesting, but fairly brief explanation of the role of the bastaixos in the construction of Santa Maria del Mar, I highly recommend you visit Emily Benson’s January 17, 2021 blog post, The hopes of the people on their shoulders: The legendary bastaixos of Santa Maria del Mar.]
[A spelling NOTE: “Maria” in Catalan does not carry an accent over the letter “i“. In Spanish/Castellano, it does. Just a curiosity to explain my lack of accents in the photo titles.]
The Visit
For 10 Euros a person, or 15 Euros for a couple, you can visit not only the interior sanctuary area but also the interior balcony behind the altar and the outside rooftop terraces. I highly recommend this. The views from on top are liberating.
Be sure to check THE BASILICA OF SANTA MARIA DEL MAR WEBSITE for current information, as prices, schedules, and access can change throughout the year.
Photography Issues
No tripods allowed, so be prepared to dial up the ISO for those handheld shots. In my case, with the Nikon D850, I mostly used ISO 3200 inside the dark sanctuary and ISO 64 outdoors on the bright rooftop terraces. Obviously, at 3200, I needed quite a lot of noise reduction in post-processing (Photoshop Elements) to fix the files”as you’ll see below.
Fittingly for the locale, I used all three of the holy trinity of Nikon’s DSLR lenses: 14-24, 24-70, and the 70-200.
No worries, though. These modern, high-tech days, your iPhone–especially a newer version with the various lens options–will likely do just fine for websized images.
The Images
The main front doors–note the two hunched-over bastaixos, carrying their heavy loads. If you look closely, you can see the rolled up turban/cape-like thing they used as padding:
La Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, #2, Barcelona, 2021
Use the rear entrance to the basilica for your tourist visit. This could be a rare photo–when the tourists return post-COVID, I would expect there to be a line to get in:
La Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, #67, Barcelona, 2021
The two little angels below Saint Mary are holding the crest of the city of Barcelona:
La Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, #6, Barcelona, 2021
The classic interior view, shot at ISO 3200. What you will see as you stroll about is a result of waves of restorations, upgrades, and repairs starting after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939, at the outset of which the church was set on fire, burning for 11 days). After that, there was obviously a lot to fix:
La Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, #19, Barcelona, 2021
Two 14mm wide-angle views, looking up at the heavens. The round, or “rose” window dates from 1459. The original was destroyed in an earthquake in 1428 (which also apparently caused 30-something deaths in the church from falling stones):
La Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, #22, Barcelona, 2021
La Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, #23, Barcelona, 2021
A close-up of the “rose window”:
La Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, #56, Barcelona, 2021
Two images looking up at the massive capstones (restored and recolored in recent decades) using the 70-200mm f/4 Nikkor lens, at ISO 3200. I’d love to have a time machine to see how they hoisted these huge circular blocks into place:
La Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, #63, Barcelona, 2021
La Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, #65, Barcelona, 2021
One of the most interesting sculptures inside the basilica is this representation of Saint Ignatius of Loyala (Sant Ignasi de Loiola, in Catalan), a 2016 work by sculptor Lau Feliu. Ignasius started out as a soldier, until wounds and subsequent surgeries left him with one leg shorter than the other. He eventually became a priest and founded the Jesuits. The Roman numerals on the nearby plaque (MDXXIV and MDXXV) correspond to the years, 1524 and 1525, in which Ignasius was apparently seen begging near this spot in Barcelona:
La Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, #57, Barcelona, 2021
The pipe organ with the crowning Catalan “stripes” shining in the light:
La Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, #58, Barcelona, 2021
Jesus and Maria. We see this scene as quite normal in nearly all Christian churches… but imagine a 5-year-old kid seeing this for the first time–the nails through the hands, the crown of thorns, and the blood dripping from the ribs. As a movie scene, this would nab at least an “R” rating, but we don’t even blink as we walk by:
La Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, #60, Barcelona, 2021
The Bible, illuminated by a shaft of light from a high window:
La Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, #64, Barcelona, 2021
Rear and front of the main altarpiece, depicting Mary with her famous son:
La Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, #10, Barcelona, 2021
La Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, #61, Barcelona, 2021
This fun-for-kids-and-adults-who-are-really-kids spiral staircase will circle you up inside the northwest tower to the roof terraces:
La Basilica de Santa Maria del Mar, #24, Barcelona, 2021
No, you can’t climb up those ladders, but it does make for an interesting photograph at 14mm through a wide-angle lens:
La Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, #25, Barcelona, 2021
In this view, from the northwest tower, Tibidabo (Torre de Collserola, Temple Expiatori del Sagrat Cor) is visible through the left window, and the Sagrada Familia Temple with its ever-present monster crane on the right. All but the finishing touches of the Sagrada Familia Temple should be finished by 2026, in time for the 100th anniversary of Antoni Gaudí’s death by tranvia:
Santa Maria del Mar, #26, Barcelona, 2021
Torre Glòries, formerly known as Torre Agbar, is that 38-story bullet-shaped thing in the distance. In the foreground, those black bell-shaped objects cover ventilation holes. When it looks like rain, someone comes up and covers the holes with the “black bells”. On sunny days, the holes are left uncovered to facilitate the circulation of air throughout the cathedral:
La Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, #27, Barcelona, 2021
The highest platform on the roof of the basilica, high above the narrow alleyways of the Barri Gòtic, gives you some wonderful views of the city of Barcelona. That’s the southwest tower we are headed toward, where we will descend another spiral staircase back down to the quiet and relative darkness of the sanctuary:
La Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, #29, Barcelona, 2021
Another, wider, city view. In the foreground, notice that the ventilation holes here have been uncovered to allow the building to “breathe”:
La Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, #31, Barcelona, 2021
A two-ship flyover of the southwestern bell tower:
La Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, #33, Barcelona, 2021
Compressing the view to the northeast with the telephoto lens:
La Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, #36, Barcelona, 2021
Looking over the edge of the terrace and down into the plaza below I beheld a strange and rare sight in these COVID times–a small group tour with tour guide explanation in progress: “It’s big… really big!” And it looks like a couple (lower left) has ordered fresh-squeezed orange juice and pa amb tomàquet:
La Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, #49, Barcelona, 2021
A very eroded gargoyle drain, and a very, very tiny garden:
La Basilica de Santa Maria del Mar, #50, Barcelona, 2021
Exterior view of the south side… and an angry gargoyle growls in our direction:
La Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, #68, Barcelona, 2021
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