Plaça de Sant Just — Oldest Fountain in Barcelona

The Plaça de Sant Just in Barcelona's Gothic Quarter houses the 1367 Font de Sant Just, one of the city's oldest fountains, built near a church with a 1,200-year legal legacy. The adjacent Basilica of Saints Justus and Pastor was constructed around 1342 over a 4th-century Christian site. A 2013 excavation uncovered a 1st-century Roman column base and a mass grave of 120 Black Death victims.

Barcelona · from the walk “Stones & Secrets: Hidden Courtyards of the Barri Gòtic” · audio ~3 min · Generated

Plaça de Sant Just, Barcelona

When was the Font de Sant Just in Barcelona constructed?

Welcome to Plaça de Sant Just... one of the most hidden and ancient corners of Barcelona's Gothic Quarter. Take a moment. Listen to how quiet it is here. Most tourists walk right past this square without ever knowing it exists.......... Now, look at the stone fountain in front of you. This is the Font de Sant Just, dated from thirteen sixty-seven... making it over six hundred and fifty years old. There IS an even older fountain in Barcelona, the Font de Santa Ana, dating to thirteen fifty-six, but this one has a far more dramatic story behind it.......... You see those three carved stone faces staring back at you? They once spouted water directly from their mouths. The fountain originally had three taps inserted in those faces, but after later remodelings, it now has two taps located between them.......... So who built this, and Why? The fountain was created to pay tribute to Joan Fiveller, Counselor of the city of Barcelona, who during a hunt discovered a very important source of water in the Collserola hills and promoted the project of its canalization. That discovery happened in fourteen twenty-seven. Imagine... a politician out hunting with falcons stumbles upon a spring, and suddenly medieval Barcelona gets fresh water piped into its walls! On the side facing Carrer de la Palma de Sant Just, there is actually a relief of a falcon catching a partridge, an homage to the Fiveller family.......... Now turn around and look at the church behind you. The Basilica of Saints Justus and Pastor may be the Oldest church in Barcelona. The current Gothic structure was built around thirteen forty-two, but it's believed that a Christian church has sat on this site since three hundred C.E. And here's where it gets truly strange. It's believed this ancient church may have originally been a shrine to Castor and Pollux, twin figures of Greco-Roman mythology. As Barcelona became a Catholic city, the twins may have evolved into or been conflated with Justus and Pastor. Pagan twins... becoming Christian saints. Layers upon layers.......... During a twenty thirteen restoration, numerous archaeological remains were discovered, including the base of a Roman column from the first century A.D., a baptismal font from the sixth century, and a mass grave of around one hundred and twenty people who died during the Black Death in the fourteenth century.......... And one last detail most people never hear. After retaking Barcelona from the Moors in eight oh one, King Louis the Pious declared that a last will and testament made inside this church was a legally binding document. This privilege was later extended to Anyone... and was not repealed until nineteen ninety-one. Think about that. For nearly twelve hundred years, you could walk into this church, declare your final wishes, and it held the force of law. No notary required.......... This quiet little square has seen Roman temples, medieval plagues, and centuries of whispered last wills. Stand here long enough... and you can almost feel the weight of it all.

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