Santa Anna, the Romanesque church two minutes from Plaça Catalunya

Come up from the metro at Plaça Catalunya, turn into Carrer de Santa Anna, and after just a few dozen metres, on the left, a lane opens onto a silent forecourt. This is where the Església de Santa Anna stands, one of the oldest churches in Barcelona, squeezed between shops and streams of pedestrians but rarely noticed by those hurrying towards the Rambla.

The history

Its history begins in 1141, when the Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem settled in the city and began building a monastery. The building grew over roughly three centuries, and this explains its layered identity: the core is twelfth-century Romanesque, with a square apse, a Latin-cross plan and a pointed barrel vault from the 1200s, while the portal is Gothic, dated around 1300. In the fourteenth century the nave was lengthened and covered with a Gothic rib vault. The church was declared a national monument in 1881 and is today an asset of cultural interest.

It is not just an architectural shell: the history of Barcelona has passed through here. In 1493 the monastery hosted the Corts convened by Ferdinand II of Aragon, the assembly that brought together the representatives of the realm. Among the things to seek out inside are the fourteenth-century Chapel of the Perdons, on the left side of the apse, and the sixteenth-century tomb of the knight Miquel de Boera. The interior is bare and intimate, very different from the crowded naves of the cathedral or the Sagrada Família: the naked stone and the half-light make the age of the building plain.

The cloister

The real reason the detour is worth it, though, is the cloister. It dates from the fifteenth century, in Catalan Gothic style with a few Renaissance touches, and is reached through a Romanesque door that also leads to the chapter house. It is a small porticoed square, considered among the oldest in Catalonia: four sides of columns, a patch of sky cut out above, and a muffled acoustic that entirely deadens the noise of the city just metres away. It is the space that justifies the nickname of hidden corner: to find it you have to know it is there, because from the street you would never guess.

The reason it stays overlooked is simple and a little paradoxical: it lies in the most trodden point of the centre, but on a side street that most visitors cross without looking up. Those seeking out Barcelona think of the Modernista architecture or the more spectacular medieval Barri Gòtic, and a sober church wedged between shop windows does not make it into the standard itineraries.

Getting there

How to get there: the most convenient metro stop is Catalunya (Lines L1 and L3), or alternatively Urquinaona (L1 and L4); the address is Carrer de Santa Anna 29. The approximate hours are Monday to Saturday from 9.30am to 1pm and from 6pm to 8pm, on public holidays only in the morning from 9.30am to 1pm, but since it is an active parish church you should expect variations linked to services and celebrations. The best moment is early morning, when light reaches the cloister and the bustle of Plaça Catalunya has not yet begun. The visit is short, about twenty minutes, but it is a stop that completely changes the rhythm compared with the rest of a day in the centre.

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