A Hospital Turned into an Architectonic Jewel in Barcelona

PLACES & SPACES | ROOMS & GARDENS | WORLD OF CABANA

Built between 1902 and 1930 as the biggest and most innovative hospital in Barcelona, the Sant Pau Complex also stood out for its design which became a symbol of Catalan Modernism. Rebeca Vaisman and Isabel Bronts tour the colorful, ornamented and gardened pavilions inside this extraordinary architectural patrimony.

BY REBECA VAISMAN | ROOMS & GARDENS | 22 JUNE 2026

In the heart of Eixample, one of the busiest neighbourhoods in Barcelona, a city within a city stands testament to the relevance of architecture. Sant Pau Modernist Complex is an open space with beautiful, ornamented freestanding buildings, organized into pavilions connected by tunnels and surrounded by gardens. 

Built between 1902 and 1930 as the headquarters of the Sant Pau Hospital, it operated as such for almost nine decades, listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1997 for its unique Modernist aesthetics. Around the central patio, rich and intricate façades, with floral motifs, are crowned by domes: inside each building, curved walls, high and vaulted ceilings and colorful ceramic tiles create an Art Nouveau manifesto. 

“The exuberant decoration sometimes distracts from the fact that this hospital was born out of a very rational and well-studied project around what this type of facility needed at the time it was created,” reflects Miquel Terreu, Head of Archives of the institution. This highly technical goal guided the emplacement, distribution and circulations of Sant Pau. “And yet, the project wasn’t limited to its functional aspect: it was able to add more value through an urbanistic vision that took into consideration how Barcelona was expanding, and also the aesthetics and the beauty of the Catalan Modernist values."

As a result, Sant Pau Hospital not only materialized the best practices in health and hygiene of its time, with a humanistic approach to medicine, it also gave the city one of its most revered architectural patrimonies. The site is rooted in the history of Barcelona. For over five centuries, between 1414 and 1926, the old Hospital de la Santa Creu was the largest and most important sanitary complex in the city.

By the late 19th century, the Gothic cloister became too restricted and obsolete; the hospital needed to be relocated and, so, an ambitious project started to develop. At the same time, the Spanish city was outgrown and had begun developing beyond its old borders. In this context, wealthy Catalan banker Pau Gil y Serra left his significant estate towards the building of a new hospital, on the condition that it had the biggest technological, medical and architectural innovations. 

A generous plot in a still undeveloped area was granted, and the project for the new Sant Pau Hospital was commissioned to architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner (1850-1923), the great figure of Catalan Modernism, known for buildings that have helped shape Barcelona’s architectural character, such as Palacio de la Música Catalana and Casa Lleó i Morera.

Domènech i Montaner was inspired by Europe’s best equipped hospitals but wanted to explore further into the possibilities of design and healthcare. He envisioned a garden city where light and nature played a fundamental role in patient recovery. The square plan around two diagonal axes that form a cross, the emblem of the old Hospital de la Santa Creu, is an acknowledgment to Barcelona’s nosocomial and architectural history.

The first stone was placed in 1902 and the hospital started operating in 1916. When Domènech i Montaner died in 1923, his architect son, Pere Domènech i Roura, took over the project. King XIII of Spain presided over its official inauguration in 1930. “There is one other fact that makes Sant Pau exceptional: At the time that it received the UNESCO’s acknowledgement, it still worked as a hospital,” continues Terreu. “It assisted the patients, carried on with surgical interventions and everything that goes on in a main hospital, without undermining the conservation of its spaces”.

By the late 2000s, Sant Pau too was surpassed by the contemporary needs of medical technology. When all the medical services were transferred to a new hospital in 2009, the site underwent an unprecedented restoration.

The historical archive contains the administrative documentation of Sant Pau Hospital and the old Hospital de la Santa Creu. Therefore, it guards documents spanning from the 15th century. This makes it one of the most important medical archives in Europe.

“What is also remarkable and unique is that the archive has kept all the documentation of the construction of the Sant Pau complex”, explains Miquel Terreu. “Not only the original plan, which is a common document to keep, but all that was produced during the lengthy process: the payment books, the specifications and receipts of all the finishes that were bought, all the drafts… We are taking about seven lineal metres of documentation that rebuilds the whole project”, adds the archivist, enthusiastically.

This treasure archive proved pivotal in the restoration project, which aimed to bring back the buildings and gardens to its original design. Understandably, the hospital had altered and added several features during the decades. Without the abundance of the archive, it would have been impossible to accurately know what sort of brick, stone, tile and wood were used and placed. The investigation process lasted three years, recalls Terreu, before the restoration work was done between 2009 and 2014.

Nowadays, the Sant Pau Modernist Complex is home to agencies that work in the areas of education, sustainability and health, like the United Nations University, the European Forest Institute and the World Health Centre offices, with programs and events carried out in the square and pavilions. The Sant Pau Foundation maintains a protocol of time schedules and group capacities that procures the conservation of the spaces, and so previous reservations are encouraged.

The archive is located on the fourth floor of the Administrative Pavilion, over the Hypostyle Hall that welcomes visitors to the modernist site with monumental columns and a staircase. This is where Miquel Terreu has worked for the past 18 years. “The surroundings are formidable. To move around the site is to encounter color, light and nature,” he reflects. “It is a privilege to occupy these spaces, and quite outstanding that this effect was envisioned from its origins.”