Architect: Doménech y Montaner
Supervised by: Llimona
Year of construction: 1893
Style: modernism
Luis Doménech y Montaner refurbished the cemetery that stands on the ruins of an ancient Gothic church. He designed a surrounding wall, which is decorated with picturesque elements such as the pinnacles, the four-armed crosses and the main entrance arch.
Doménech wanted to emphasize the ruin, so on a corner of the ancient wall he added the marble sculpture of the Guardian Angel designed by José Llimona (1894-1985). The architect also designed the family crypt for Don Joaquín del Piélago where he added some modernist nuances such as a twisted wave on the surface of the tomb.
He achieved a mood of timelessness, expressed by the ambivalent and solemn calm of the angel that stands on a corner like a bird, in contrast with the faded ruins. These ruins tell us a story of an old lady who was attending the services on a Sunday afternoon. She was seated in the pew reserved for the Duke of the Infantado, the feudal Lord, and was ordered to budge. There were many arguments and it was finally decided to remove that particular pew but it was too late for the congregation that had sworn never to return and had already moved to the Hermitage of Saint John, the ancient Town Hall.
As a result the townspeople decided to build a new temple, away from the dead and protected from the strong winds, in the neighbourhood now called Barrio de la Iglesia.
They put aside a day a week to work on the church, thus, they spent more than two centuries on its construction.
