Barcelona: the Cathedral of the Sea

'At a time when no one seemed to pay attention to him, Bernat looked up at the clear blue sky ...' (1)
... and dreamed of a place worthy of the Lady, - thinks the pilgrim, while recalling the first words of the formidable novel by Ildefonso Falcones. He has just left behind the media beauty of the Cathedral of Santa Eulalia, including its beautiful Jardin de la Oca, and the impressive mystery associated with the enigmatic skull of the Bisbe street bridge. Gone too, the Generalitat and the City Council, with the flags waving in the hot afternoon wind, as well as a plaza crowded with tourists, between whose feet, flocks of pigeons insolently peck at the crumbs that some of them throw at them, perhaps thinking that with their gesture they honor the emblematic animal of the goddess Isis, l later adopted by Christianity to represent the Holy Spirit.

It is true that the sky, possibly as clear and blue as the other medieval that warmed the heart of old Bernat and inspired Falcones, has hardly changed its appearance in the last thousand years that have passed since the waterlogged bastaixos or galafetes of the Ribera will transport indolently the heavy stones, from a beach that is approximately, four or five kilometers from the place or even further away: from the quarries of Montjuic.

As in any Gothic neighborhood that boasts, the streets, narrow and long as an imaginary umbilical cord represent, in the imagination of the pilgrim, the platonic simile of the symbolic travel from the world of the Idea to the world of the Form, determined by all Birth . Or should we say, better, rebirth ?: the pilgrim slides down alleys in perpetual darkness, representative of the maternal womb, until it ends, at the end of the tunnel, in the glorious light of the cathedral. It is clear, that after all, every trip supposes, at heart, a rebirth and an initiation and knows, likewise, that there is no lesson, however small, that is taken for well-learned.

The pilgrim thinks that, like any harmonious ensemble that boasts, this formidable Cathedral of the Sea, also dresses with the immaculate tunic of Beauty, although the effort required to raise such a sovereign work of Art entails in the credit of its history, episodes humans of love and death, that make in their thought, the respect is possibly as strong as the admiration. Under such circumstance, he wondered if the canon that had the initiative of its construction, named Bernardo Llull, would not be a relative of that charismatic Doctor Mirabilis who in his day proposed the merger of the two great military orders, the one of the Temple and the one of the Hospital, trying to convert Muslims to Christianity, through faith and the word: Ramón Llull. Or as centuries later the great poet Antonio Machado would say, referring, however, to another singular character, named Don Guido: that thunder, dressed as a Nazarene.

Be that as it may, and unlike in many similar temples, we know the names of the stonemasons who carried out the ineffable project - Berenguer de Montagut and Ramón Despuig - as well as the date on which its execution began: 1329. It is true that there is also speculation about the possibility that so immeasurable a forest of columns that bear with surprising precision some vaults that seem to have trapped the stars of the sky inside them, rise over an ancient Roman amphitheater. Sit transit gloria mundi.

Closer to the own and humble origins of the pilgrim, it is still a remarkable fact, that such a wonderful work was paid by the parishioners of the port area and the Ribera: the effort of the common people to also touch God. It is logical and fair, based on this, that in reward, the suffering bastaixos -significant representatives of what it means to win the bread with the sweat of the forehead- appear not only gloriously represented at the front door, but at the same time the theme of its capitals, along with other worthy representatives of the fabulous medieval symbolic world: the Centaur-Sagittarius firing arrows from his bow against a harpy; the dogs and lions or the dignified and wise apothecary, which first belonged to the closed world of the monks and then also reached the popular culture, adopting the remedies of the grandmother.

It is a pity, however, that time has not respected the paintings of a tympanum that, still showing the risen Christ and in Maiestas, with the Virgin and the Evangelist kneeling, raise, nevertheless showing the wounds of the nails in the palms of the hands, an old controversy between Religion and Science: palms or dolls ?. It does seem to be observed, however, that the paintings referred to some episodes of the life of Christ, and even in the upper part of the left side, we can observe, as a motive, the Resurrection; perhaps to the right, and at the same height, the pilgrim thinks, seeing the wings of the angel, in that conceptual genesis of the Annunciation.

In any case, the messages, in spite of everything, are there, repeated tirelessly by a world, the medieval one that, curiously, does not stop surprising us as we get to know it better. Also in its interior, this cathedral of the town conserves a remarkable variety of the Marian faith of Catalonia, because although, Our Lady of the Sea presides, as it is logical, the greater pedestal of the head, in its lateral ones, it is gratifying to find two figures also close to the popular faith: that of the Mare de Déu de L'esperança and that of the Mare de Déu dels Desamparats, together with the saints Aleix and Magí, and of course, the figure of Santa Tecla, who carries in his hands two characteristic symbols of Power: the palm leaf and the Tau cross.

Notes:

(1) Eduardo Falcones: 'The Cathedral of the Sea'.

Related video:

NOTICED: originally published, in my blog MEMORIES OF A PILGRIM. Both the text, as the photographs (unpublished in Steemit), and the video (except music, reproduced under license of YouTube), are my exclusive intellectual property. The original entry can be found at the following address: https://jc347.blogspot.com.es/2015/01/la-catedral-del-mar.html