Do hospitals have to be white, sterile and boring? Think again – in the middle of Barcelona stands L’Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau. This translates as: Hospital of the Holy Cross and Saint Pau. The world’s largest Art Nouveau building complex takes up almost an entire block and looks nothing like a typical hospital, but more like a colourful park with many small, ornate castles.
And that is the intention: If you walk through the grounds, as the patients who were treated here did, you may notice how calming and relaxing the atmosphere of the hospital is. This should help you to recover faster and feel more comfortable. A total of 48 buildings belong to the old hospital, almost all of which face south and have their own gardens. Old trees and plants with a healing tradition, such as lavender or rosemary, grow everywhere.
Behind this extraordinary hospital was the desire for better medical infrastructure, which has been present among the Spanish population since the devastating Black Plague (1346-1353). At that time, an estimated one-third of Europe’s population died. In the 15th century, the first ‘Hospital de la Santa Creu’ was built in Barcelona, but it quickly became too small. In 1902, the fortune of the banker Pau Gil enabled the construction of a new hospital. To honour the donor, the building was henceforth called L’Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau.
The hospital was finally opened in 1930. People were still being treated at the Hospital de Sant Pau for around 80 years, until 2009. Today, you can visit the old operating theatre in the Unesco World Heritage Site, learn about old medical equipment in hospital rooms or discover the tunnel system that connects many of the buildings underground.
Website of Hospital de Sant Pau: https://www.santpaubarcelona.org/en/visits
Photo: L’Hospital de La Santa Creu i Sant Pau in the centre of Barcelona. Credits: Unsplash.com/Sof
