The altarpiece and the fires

Take a look at the lovely altarpiece dedicated to the Holy Family behind the altar. It is Modernist in style and it was carved by the sculptor Josep Llimona for the oratory in Casa Batlló, from which it was moved here some years ago. I also wanted to leave my own mark on this beautiful piece of work, and I designed the frame. The keystone in the central vault is also well worth seeing; it is a polychrome relief carving by Joan Flotats, dedicated to the Annunciation.

However, this space has also been the setting for a number of rather dark episodes in its history. During the Spanish Civil War, the crypts was attacked and seriously damaged by militia, who even desecrated a number of tombs in search of weapons. Fortunately, it was all able to be restored. But not long ago, in 2011, the church alarm bells rang again when a mentally disturbed man set fire to the Sacristy and fire spread rapidly throughout the crypt.

Let us go upstairs again, and outside once more. We shall look at the Facade of the Passion, which is where you first entered the church.



(c) (R) 2013, MUSMon com S.L.
Text (a) Diego Laforga Marcos (2013)

Picture: Altarpiece and keystone in the Crypt (2010)
Source: Wikipedia
Author: Canaan
Licence: Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.