Barcelona Cathedral’s Pietà: A Gothic Masterpiece with a Secret Past

Hi friends! Today, we stroll down one of those shadowed medieval streets that can still surprise even the most seasoned Barcelona walker — el carrer de la Pietat. It’s a place where history is carved into stone… or, in this case, molded in resin.

The famous tympanum that’s not what it seems

Visitors flock to the Gothic Quarter for its cobblestone charm, intricate façades, and the hushed coolness of cloisters. Right where carrer de la Pietat meets the side of Barcelona’s Cathedral, above a sealed doorway into the cloister, you’ll see a striking relief: Mary cradling the lifeless body of Christ, symbols of the Passion clustered around them, and, kneeling humbly in the corner, the canónigo Berenguer Vila — the man who commissioned the piece in the late 15th century.

For decades, most assumed they were looking at the real medieval carving. In truth, what you see today is a replica. The original — carved in oak by the German sculptor Michael Lochner — rests safely inside the Museu Diocesà.

From Gothic Germany to the streets of Barcelona

Michael Lochner wasn’t just any itinerant craftsman. Arriving in Barcelona in the late 1400s, he brought with him the stylistic language of German Gothic art — sharp folds in garments, expressive faces, and a heightened emotional realism. Alongside the Pietat, Lochner is credited with works inside the Cathedral choir and a now-lost retable of Sant Pere for Premià de Dalt, destroyed during the Spanish Civil War.

The Pietat was once in place over this very door until one night, decades ago, thieves tried to prise it from the wall. The plot was foiled by the Guardia Urbana, but the scare convinced Cathedral officials to replace it with a resin copy. Some whisper the attempt bore the signature of the infamous art thief Erik el Belga, though the link has never been officially proven.

Carrer de la Pietat: a medieval artery

Carrer de la Pietat is more than just the stone backdrop to this story. Winding along the northern flank of the Cathedral, the street owes its name to the very sculpture we’ve been talking about. Historical records place it as part of the medieval precinct known as the barri de la Sede, home to clergy, scribes, and artisans linked to the Cathedral works.

In medieval times, the street was a service corridor between the ecclesiastical quarter and the episcopal palace. Here, merchants brought stone, wood, and supplies; choristers and canons passed between the cloister and their dwellings. Narrow, shaded, and somewhat secretive, carrer de la Pietat retains that hushed quality today — a whispering path between centuries.

The cloister: oasis and symbol

The cloister of Barcelona Cathedral, accessed from the main nave or through side doors like the one beneath the Pietat, is a world apart from the bustle outside. Built between the 14th and 15th centuries, it surrounds a garden filled with palms, orange trees, and the famous gaggle of white geese — 13 in number, symbolizing the age at which Saint Eulàlia was martyred.

For clergy, the cloister was a spiritual and practical center — a place for processions, chapter meetings, and quiet contemplation. For us modern visitors, it is a stone-walled time capsule. Standing inside, you can almost hear the echo of sandals on flagstones and the distant peal of bells.

Stories in stone

The Pietat portal isn’t the only sculptural treasure along this street. Look up and you’ll spot gargoyles — dragons, grotesques, and even more playful creatures — jutting from the buttresses. Their function was practical (to drain rainwater) but their artistry, like Lochner’s work, was deeply tied to the imagination of the time.

Other chapels inside the cloister bear coats of arms from Barcelona’s guilds, reminders that the Cathedral’s grandeur was as much a civic as a religious endeavor.

A walk worth slowing for

For photographers, carrer de la Pietat offers layered perspectives — arches framing arches, light filtering between stones, and the drama of the Pietat relief catching the sun at certain hours. Knowing that the carving is a replica doesn’t diminish its power. In fact, it adds a layer of intrigue: a secret between the city and those who care to look closer.

And here lies the essence of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter — beauty woven with stories, some whispered in archives, others hidden in plain sight.

So next time you pass the Cathedral, slip down carrer de la Pietat. Pause before the Pietat. And think of the hands that shaped it five centuries ago, the near-loss that prompted its retreat indoors, and the quiet street that still bears its name.

Sant Jordi Fountain Faucet at Barcelona Cathedral Cloister

La Font de Sant Jordi (Saint George Fountain), of which Barcelona Photoblog brings you this faucet detail, is one of the most renown fountains in the city as it is part of the impressive cloister at Barcelona Cathedral, perhaps the second most visited sacred place after Sagrada Familia. 

Although the gothic Cathedral of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia, built in 150 years, is appealing enough once you set foot on the main nave it wouldn't be that remarkable without its cloister, a well-balanced quiet place, where light, water plants, magnolias, palm trees, geese and medieval fountains create that utmost joyous design that we now prefer to call feng shui. 

The fountain as such, crowned by a 1970 figure (by Emili Colom) of Sant Jordi on his horse on top of a mossy rock, was built under the supervision of architect Andreu Escuder in 1449. Nevertheless, the water was spouting here directly from the mountain of Collserola since 1356. 

This octogonal shaped architectural piece is no ordinary fountain, not only because of these beautiful faucets with intriguing faces that might as well represent archangels or demons on whose rump a small kid figure seems to be riding a bird or a horse (this can be the subject of rivers of ink for an unleashed imagination), but because since 1637 during every Corpus Christi Feast it is adorned with flowers and an empty egg that dances frantically on the water jet. Such tradition is known as L'ou com balla (previous post).

Here are some more pictures of the Fountain of Sant Jordi.

A Travel to Miravet Castle in Tarragona, Spain

Declared as a site of national interest and opened to the public in 1994, the Castle of Miravet is one of those secret places of Catalonia that are a must in an avid traveler's agenda, only 50 kms away from famous Costa Dorada!

As you can appreciate above, the castle was built on a bend of the Ebro river and dominates over a landscape of fertile lands where vineyards are predominant.

From the rock on which it stands one cannot avoid to recall those centuries of history behind the renown building and the villagers that enjoyed such remarkable views.

From Iberians to Muslims, from Templars to feudal lords, from Carlists to Bourbons, from Nationalists to Republicans, each of them had the chance to rejoice in the same landscape.

There were people here, according to the oldest remains found, since 2 BC, Iberians to be precise. Later, came the Arabs or the Moors, as they were known in Al-Andalus, the name they gave to their dominions in Spain. By the 11th century, they had built this impressive defensive fortress which was expanded in coming decades in order to protect themselves from military incursions of groups organized by powerful Catalan counts. Bear in mind that, after many years of prosperity toiling these lands, the time came when only Miravet and Siurana remained as the last redoubts of the Moorish period.

It was Ramon Berenguer IV, one of those feudal lords, who took the castle from them and gave it to the Templar Knights. For almost two centuries they dominated the fortress which they improved until 1307, year in which, the Spanish Inquisition, instigated by Philip the Handsome, King of France, starts persecuting Templars in France as a result of which James II of Catalonia and Aragon sets on doing the same in Miravet. After two months of resistance to the siege imposed by James, Templars are imprisoned and sent to trials by the Inquisition. The order of the Temple is dissolved and their assets confiscated and transferred to the order of Hospital de Sant Joan de Jerusalem also known as Hospitallers.

But if you want to know more about this Romanesque building and you are fond of Catalonia castle tours it is better that you visit this place and its idyllic environment.

Miravet Castle

Contact details
Carrer del Castell, s/n
+34 977 407 368
Miravet, Tarragona (Catalonia)

miravet.cultura@gencat.cat

Location

Autonomous region: Catalonia
Province/Island: Tarragona

Practical information

Schedule

From Jun 01 to Sep 30
From 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM

From Oct 01 to Dec 15
From 10:00 AM to 5:30 PM

From Dec 16 to Feb 28
From 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM

From Mar 01 to May 31
From 10:00 AM to 5:30 PM

Prices

General: €3,50
Reduced: €2,50
ICOM members and associations: Admission free

Medieval Musicians at the Annual Medieval Market in Vic, Osona

There are occupations that do not seem to change much throughout centuries. Take a look at these musicians dressed in medieval attires impersonating those wandering minstrels going from town to town entertaining the crowd for gratuities and think of how this eventually derived into today's buskers. Yes, street musicians keep working for peanuts and having a hard life. This image was taken last December in Vic, Osona during the local medieval market held each year. Check this video found on YouTube showing more or less what the medieval market looked like. In fact the old city streets do create a fantastic scenario to get the idea about medieval times.

Ambient Essential Oil

Ambient essential oils used in aromatherapy for uplifting the spirit and the mind vary in scents and colors, extracted as they are from different parts of a plant be it leaf, seed, wood, root, flower or resin among others. They have been part of alternative medicine and folk wisdom since time immemorial. That is why, it is not rare to find scented oil stands in medieval fairs around Catalonia, like this one in Vic, Osona (Barcelona Province).

Stonecutter at Súria's Medieval Market

I felt like black and white today so I selected this stonecutter in the Medieval Fair at Súria near Barcelona (see the original color image here). True craftsmen disguised for the occasion showed you the secrets of old medieval trades. There was the basket weaver, the coal burner, the potter, the weaver, the glassblower and a long list of other crafts represented. Stonecutters or stonecarvers were highly appreciated and well paid at the time and their history is linked to the masons lodges of the middle ages. Learn the basics of stone carving art. An amusing reading to learn about medieval crafts, especially stonemasonry is The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I couldn't help thinking of Tom Builder when I saw this man.