Plaça de Sant Josep Oriol — Painters' Square

Plaça de Sant Josep Oriol, also known as Painters' Square, is a historic plaza in Barcelona paved over the former main cemetery of the Basílica de Santa María del Pi. Named after Saint Josep Oriol, born in 1650, the plaza hosts a weekend art market featuring around 40 local artists. During the Spanish Civil War, the site was temporarily renamed the Plaza of the Unknown Militia, a title rediscovered in 2004.

Barcelona · from the walk “Stones & Secrets: Hidden Courtyards of the Barri Gòtic” · audio ~4 min · Generated

Plaça de Sant Josep Oriol, Barcelona

Why was Plaça de Sant Josep Oriol in Barcelona renamed during the Spanish Civil War?

Welcome to Plaça de Sant Josep Oriol... or as the locals simply call it, Painters' Square. Take a look around. Easels, canvases, the smell of oil paint mingling with coffee from the terrace bars. It feels like it's been this way forever. But here's the thing... you're standing on a graveyard.......... The main cemetery of the BasÍlica de Santa María del Pi was located right here, in the space now occupied by this square, running along the lateral facade of the church. Despite protests from the clergy, it was eventually paved over to avoid the health problems that plagued all church cemeteries at the time. So beneath your feet... centuries of bones, quietly resting under cobblestone.......... Now, the man this square is named after. Josep Oriol was born on the twenty third of November, sixteen fifty, right here in Barcelona. He was the Only one among eight siblings not to die during childhood. Think about that. Seven brothers and sisters, all gone. It shaped him profoundly. He lived a life of such extreme austerity that he was known as "Doctor Bread and Water"... because that was literally his only sustenance. He gave away everything else to the sick and the poor.......... And then there are the miracles. Legend has it that during a journey in sixteen ninety eight, when he couldn't pay for a meal at a roadside hostel, he took a simple radish... cut it into slices... and the slices turned into coins. To this day, chocolate coins with his face are made for the annual Festa Major del Pi.......... But here's the detail that Truly sealed his sainthood. On April sixth, eighteen oh six, a priest named José Mestres fell from a high walkway on the outside of the church's apse... and rose completely unscathed, attributing his survival to Josep Oriol. That little posthumous miracle led to his canonization, and a plaque was installed right on the corner of the church to commemorate the blessed fall.......... Now look across the square. During the Spanish Civil War, this square was Renamed... "Plaza of the Unknown Militia," to honor those who died fighting fascism. When Franco's troops took Barcelona in nineteen thirty nine, the painted letters were covered by a wooden board... and remained hidden for decades. The original sign was rediscovered by pure chance in two thousand four when the board was finally removed.......... And those painters you see on weekends? Around forty local artists set up stalls in an open air art market called the Mostra d'Art dels Pintors del Pi. It gives the square a bohemian atmosphere often compared to the Place du Tertre in Montmartre, Paris... although on a much smaller, more intimate scale.......... So take a moment. Grab a seat at the Bar del Pi... housed in a building dating back to the end of the eighteenth century. Sip something cold. And remember... this little square holds bones beneath its stones, a saint who ate only bread, a revolution hidden behind a plank of wood, and art that refuses to leave.

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