Santa Maria del Mar: did the bastaixos pay for it?

If you've come to the question through the novel Cathedral of the Sea (La catedral del mar), you're far from alone. That book made the image of porters bent under blocks of stone famous around the world. We won't retell it here. Instead, let's look at what lies behind the image.

Who were the bastaixos?

A bastaix earned his living carrying heavy loads on his shoulders. Some used a sort of pad, the capçana; others a rope or a pole. In Barcelona they worked along the shore, which is why they were also called macips de ribera, shore porters, and they carried goods from the beach or the quays to the customs house, the king's weighing house or the merchants' warehouses. And they answered for whatever they were carrying.

The trade already existed in the city in 1268. The porters formed a closed, fiercely protective corporation that often clashed with carters, muleteers and boatmen. They had no seat in the city government. And their guild proved so durable that it outlived the abolition of the guilds in 1836.

What does the tradition say about the stone from Montjuïc?

The story goes that the bastaixos hauled, block by block and without pay, all the stone the building needed. The first part is solid: the stone did come from the quarries on Montjuïc. The works board owned some of them, and in 1368 the king handed over another, at a spot called la Roca.

And the free labour? Here the sources don't speak with one voice. The entry for "bastaix" in the Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana takes it as fact: it says they gave the service unpaid from 1323 and that, thanks to it, they were allowed to form a confraternity in 1418. But look at that date. By that reckoning, they'd have started carrying stone six years before the first one was laid, on 25 March 1329. The standard work on the church, the chapter in L'Art gòtic a Catalunya, is more careful: it presents the story as something that "s'afirma tradicionalment", that is, something claimed by tradition.

Who paid for Santa Maria del Mar?

The church went up quickly by the standards of the day. Work began in 1329 and the last vault of the nave was closed in November 1383: fifty-four years, as the parish itself points out. Behind that speed, according to the specialist study, lay the steady backing of two kings, Alfonso the Benign and his son Peter the Ceremonious, and of the many well-off townspeople of the Ribera, the thriving quarter by the sea.

The reason for building it had to do with money too, but the other way round: the old church simply couldn't cope with all the gifts, altars and endowments pouring in from a neighbourhood grown rich on sea trade. The record of the laying of the first stone entrusted the success of the project to the piety and devotion of the parishioners.

And at first, that's how it worked. In the early years, the building was funded by what the parishioners gave as they went along, rather than from money saved up in advance. You can still see how they paid: each chapel bears the coat of arms of the family or the person who paid for it. The list includes merchants, a silversmith and a wool carder. Even one of the great keystones of the central vault, the Annunciation, carries a family's arms, those of the Bertran, and one gargoyle bears the arms of the Cardona.

What about the guilds? The study is clear: although it's often been said, their contribution was smaller than that of private donors. Only one stands out, and that's the bastaixos.

Then came the plague and the crises of the mid-fourteenth century. Private donations fell away, and the king's money became decisive in finishing the job. Peter the Ceremonious gave that quarry in 1368, donated 10,000 sous in 1373, a very large sum, and later 100 florins to restore a damaged keystone.

Why are there porters on the door of Santa Maria del Mar?

Because, paid or not, they were there. Their trade appears twice on the main front. On the door leaves there are metal fittings showing figures of porters. And in the row of twenty-four small marble capitals along the lower arcade, the ones at each end show them at work; the rest have leaves and animals from fables. Those capitals are badly worn, so they aren't easy to make out.

Inside, the guild had a chapel of its own, which it paid for in 1366 and which ended up as the sacristy, and it enjoyed certain privileges.

None of the documents we've read explains why the church gave them such a prominent spot. What the sources do say is that their contribution stood out among the guilds. And the parish, in its own history, shares out the roles rather sensibly: the king and the leading residents gave large donations; guilds and working men such as the bastaixos, carpenters and glaziers gave their labour. Carrying every stone, for free, is another matter altogether. That's tradition.

Santa Maria del Mar and the Born

The church was the heart of a neighbourhood that lived off the sea. Around it, between the church and the sea wall, stood the exchange, the customs house and the fish market. The square in front of the main door was once the parish's main cemetery, and the public fountain built there between 1383 and 1403 still survives. The smaller cemetery was the Fossar de les Moreres, on the far side of the building. In that same square, in 1354, Peter the Ceremonious took part in a solemn ceremony before sailing for Sardinia, and he describes it himself in his chronicle.

Fact or legend.

• Tradition: that the bastaixos carried every stone from Montjuïc for free. One encyclopaedia takes it as fact from 1323, before work began; the standard study presents it as something claimed by tradition.
• Fact: porters appear in the metal fittings on the door and in the end capitals of the main front; the guild had its own chapel and certain privileges.
• Fact: the stone came from quarries on Montjuïc, and the king gave one of them in 1368.
• Specialists' interpretation: the money came mainly from private donors, whose arms mark their chapels, and after the plague from the king. The guilds gave less; only the bastaixos' contribution stands out.
• No document we've read: explains why the church gave them its door.

Where to hear it

Podtour tells this story in front of the church, at the stop "The porters and the building of Santa Maria del Mar" on the route Santa Maria del Mar and the Born, twelve stops through the Ribera. In the same square, "Fire, earthquake, fire" looks up at the rose window, and beside the Fossar door, "The king's claims on the foundation stone" reads the inscription that marks the start of the work. For the practical side of your trip, see our Barcelona guide.

Further reading

• Enciclopèdia Catalana, L'Art gòtic a Catalunya, "Santa Maria del Mar" (architecture chapter; printed edition 2002–2009). https://www.enciclopedia.cat/lart-gotic-a-catalunya/santa-maria-del-mar
• Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana, "bastaix". https://www.enciclopedia.cat/gran-enciclopedia-catalana/bastaix
• Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana, "Santa Maria del Mar". https://www.enciclopedia.cat/gran-enciclopedia-catalana/santa-maria-del-mar
• Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, "History". https://www.santamariadelmar.barcelona/en/history/