Reconstructing the Diocese of Barcelona. Parish Reform and Church Building under Monsignor Modrego Casaus from 1943 to 1967

Similar to most cities in Europe, the historic core of Barcelona developed through the seventeenth century around parish churches that formed the spatial, religious and social centre of each area. That paradigm changed in modern times as new neighbourhoods were built around factories or planned on the drawing board. Yet, in Barcelona, we find that churches continued to serve an anchoring function, with over a third of the city’s parish churches having been built in the twentieth century, mostly after the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). It is our theory that this pattern had perhaps less to do with the proverbial Spanish piety than with a specific interaction between politics, religion and urban development. In the context of post-war Spain, and Barcelona in particular, this comes down to studying the interplay between nationalism, Catholicism and architectural modernism, as embodied, respectively, by the figures of the dictator Francisco Franco (1892-1975), Archbishop Gregorio Modrego Casaus (1890-1972) and a group of Catalan modernist architects called Grup R. The authoritarian climate of the post-war years and the close connections between church and state created a favourable context for church building. Indeed, Modrego managed to build no fewer than ninety-three new churches throughout the Catalan diocese during his reign (1943-1967). Perhaps surprisingly, quite a few of these were designed by modernist architects, which seems to suggest that despite the general conservative climate of the day, there was an opportunity for typological and liturgical renewal. We seek to unravel this alleged contradiction by looking at Modrego’s take on modernising his diocese and focusing on two flagship developments that arose under his tenure, namely the El Congrés neighbourhood and the modernist estate of Montbau.

ISBN:9789461664235

Jaar van publicatie:2022

Toegankelijkheid:Closed