Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau

The Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, better known as Sant Pau, is a modern building located in the neighbourhood of the Sagrada Família in Barcelona.

The monumental work of an architect Lluis Domenech i Muntaner is considered The World Heritage by UNESCO since 1997.

The architect worked with artists specialising in various fields. The main ones were Eusebi Arnau and Pau Gargallo who created many sculptures around and inside the buildings, Francesc Labarta who designed the paintings and mosaics, and Josep Perpignan who was in charge of wrought iron elements.

All buildings are built of stone and brick, ceramic decorations so typical of Catalan modernism and wrought iron fences. Because of its great floor level, it is one of the largest complexes built in this style, covering nine blocks of the Eixample district of Barcelona.

It was built to accommodate a new edifice of the Hospital de la Santa Creu which had became too small and obsolete. It consists of a main administration building and 27 wards in which there are medical procedures carried out. All of the buildings are connected by underground tunnels suitable for the transfer of patients. The main entrance is oriented to face the Sagrada Familia.

It is believed that the building uses the ventilation from the sea to help patients get better. Inside the main building is a structure of arches and columns representing a garden of medicinal plants.

Since 2003 however, extension works began and the present creation of a new hospital annex is now fully functional but not similar to the previous one when it comes to architecture.