Church of San Pedro de las Puellas (Barcelona)

The Church of San Pedro de las Puellas was an old Benedictine monastery consecrated in 945 by Count Suñer I with the intention of being the seat of a female congregation. After the secularization of the year 1835, the temple became a prison and later suffered a fire and damage during the Spanish Civil War. Today, only its church is conserved.

Very little of its original design and construction is preserved due to the continuous looting, destruction, abandonment and, especially, bad restorations the temple later suffered. It is known with certainty that its cloister consisted of two floors. The lower one was in the Romanesque style of the 11th century and the upper one was in the Gothic style, built around 1322. However, although a good number of articles and artifacts have been preserved, much remains unknown about its internal distribution.

Another well-documented element of the old monastery is its imposing bell tower built in 1752, baptized as the Tower of the Birds. It was destroyed by the fire of the Tragic Week, later being replaced by the current octagonal bell tower with a belfry containing six bells.

Its original design was a single plant in the shape of a Latin cross, with its spaces delimited by arches that were supported by columns with octagonal domes. In addition, in the area where the Most Holy Chapel is currently located, one can see the ruins of the old Church of Saint Saturninus.

As a last important detail, vaults decorated with murals from 1945 exist in the chapel. They are the work of the famous muralist Felip Vall.