Plaça de Sant Jaume: Generalitat and City Hall
Chapter 6/11 · Barcelona
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The Plaça de Sant Jaume stands at the top of the old Mons Taber, where the forum of Roman Barcino once was. It takes its name from the church of Sant Jaume, demolished in 1823 to enlarge the square, which was inaugurated in 1840 as the “Plaza de la Constitución”. Here the two great powers of Catalonia and of the city face each other.
On one side is the Palau de la Generalitat, seat of the Catalan government. The Diputació del General bought the first building on 3 December 1400. The Renaissance façade facing the square was begun by Pere Blai in 1596 and was the first great façade in that style in Catalonia. The Gothic façade on Carrer del Bisbe is by Marc Safont, finished in 1418, with a medallion of Saint George carved by Pere Joan.
Opposite is the Casa de la Ciutat, the City Hall. Its history begins with the Council of One Hundred and its 14th-century Saló de Cent. The Neoclassical façade on the square was completed by Josep Mas i Vila in 1847; on Carrer de la Ciutat the old Gothic façade, commissioned from Arnau Bargués in 1399, survives.
We leave along Carrer del Paradís, at one corner of the square; a few steps away, at number 10, is the courtyard hiding the Temple of Augustus.
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