Hello from a very rainy Sunday in Barcelona! For this week’s episode of MyBarcelona, we’re going to one of the hardest-to-find squares in the city.Â
Seriously, it took me about two years to figure out how to get to this square. I tried a few times to take visitors to it and gave up when I got lost in the mess of the old Gothic streets. But this square really is worth a visit for its dark history.
Sometimes, living in Spain I forget how just how old everything is. And sometimes it’s easy to forget that a lot of the relatively recent events in Spain were actually quite awful. It’s a country that’s changed an awful lot in the past hundred years, and every so often you’ll run across a stark reminder of that.
Plaça de Sant Felip Neri is definitely one of those places. At a first glance, it’s simply a charming little square in the Gothic Quarter that you’ve managed to come across by mistake. But then you might notice that there are some holes in the wall.
Those holes are the only remaining sign that hints that the tragic events that happened here in the late 1930s.
Let’s go check out Plaça de Sant Felip Neri and learn about its history:
How to visit Plaça Sant Felip Neri:Â
Address: Plaça Sant Felip Neri (you may also see it come up as Plaza Sant Felipe Neri – it’s the same place).
Closest metro stop: Jaume I (L4/the yellow line) or Liceu (L3/the green line)
Cost: Free!
Opening hours: It’s a square, you can go whenever you like.
Other nearby attractions: The cathedral, the secret Roman temple, the Ramblas, the Portal de l’Angel shopping street – pretty much any attraction in the Gothic Quarter. It’s all so close together!
Hope you all had a lovely weekend! I attended my very first calçotada, which will be coming up on the blog soon, along with posts about my recent jaunts around Europe.
Have you ever visited Plaça Sant Felip Neri?Â
Adeu, amics!
-Jess
You are so cute in the video! Loved it. Beautiful square! Thanks for sharing!
Nadya’s Side Of The Road recently posted…California Street with Bay Bridge
Thank you very much, Nadya! 🙂 Glad you enjoyed it.
Great video. Such an interesting place with a great history. Never been there, but I will definitely add it to my Barcelona list. I’m impressed by your Spanish accent. How long have you been learning Spanish for? P.S. You’re a great speaker!
Agness recently posted…A Beginner’s Guide To The Singapore Hawker Center
Thanks, Agness! I’ve been learning Spanish for about three years now. But I have the advantage that I’ve pretty much only learned in Spain; learning abroad is definitely faster. 🙂
Love the video and love the site redesign! Can I ask if you did it yourself? I’m looking to rework mine a bit but definitely lost on first steps – any suggestions for do-it-yourself? Or better, know any good designers? ha!
Thanks Gina! I used a theme with Elegant Themes called Divi, which lets you build your own theme. Here’s the link:
http://www.elegantthemes.com/gallery/divi/
It has been a bit of a pain and there are still some things I’m working on, but I quite like the flexibility to change it up whenever you want.
Cool video yet again Jess. That background music made me kind of sleepy… Looking forward to reading about these European jaunts!
Josh recently posted…The EHIC card will save your arse
This place is also significant in “la sombra del viento”… I tried to find it when I was there and I couldn’t! Thanks for sharing.
Sara recently posted…A Pause, and a Teacher Update
Hi there! I’ve been browsing your blog for the first time today, it’s really good! Lots of value content, very unique one among this kind of blogs. I have to say it hurts a little avery time a foreinger mentions the civil war without the blink of an eye, I still hurst so much to think of the nameless bodies buried in nameless graves and their murderer’s sons ruling the country like they used to, without ever having to appologise, admit or pay for their crimes. Plaza Sant Felip Neri is a painful reminder, another scar on my beautiful little city.
Thank you for your comment, Lidia. Of course people like me who aren’t from Spain may not be able to understand the tragedy on the same level, so I definitely understand why it would sting to hear us talk about it.
I loved this little square, visited it both times I was in Barcelona. 🙂 It’s also the place where one of my favorite music videos was filmed, My Immortal by Evanescence 😀
Oh yeah, that’s right! I keep hearing about that – will have to check out the video. 🙂