Santa Maria del Mar

Before the present church, a Romanesque church stood here, designed for a much smaller congregation. It proved too cramped for a quarter inhabited by shipowners, merchants, fishers, and port workers, while wealthy families commissioned altars in memory of their relatives. The tall pointed-arch windows of the present building rise above streets from which the sea is now far away; the shore once came almost this close. The name preserves that old geography: the church stood by the water, not deep inside the city.

Stone for this church was brought from Montjuïc by sea. At the shore, it was received by the bastaixos, the porters of La Ribera. They usually carried bales and barrels from the beach or quay to the customs house and merchants' warehouses. The porter himself was responsible for lost or damaged goods: his livelihood depended on his strength and on keeping other people's cargo safe.

The sea came much closer then. As early as nine hundred ninety-eight, a church called Santa Maria de les Arenes—Saint Mary of the Sands—is mentioned here. A maritime quarter grew up around it, inhabited by shipowners, merchants, fishers, and cargo handlers. The old Romanesque church could no longer hold the parishioners and the altars that wealthy families commissioned in memory of their relatives. In thirteen twenty-nine, construction of the present church began on its site. The name “Santa Maria del Mar” preserved the earlier connection with the shore: it is the church of Saint Mary by the sea.

The crown and wealthy residents of La Ribera provided money for the construction. The bastaixos contributed their own labor: they carried the stone intended for the church free of charge. A later legend has them hauling every block directly from the quarries of Montjuïc. A person cannot carry large pieces on their back; sea salt found in the stone confirms that they were transported on barges. The porters handled the familiar stretch of the route—from the water to the construction site. They lifted the small blocks onto their shoulders.

This labor changed the porters' position within the parish. In thirteen sixty-six, they made an agreement with the rector: the brotherhood received a chapel behind the high altar and, in return, undertook to build it itself and pay for the altar of Saint Matfiy and Saint Fyokla. In the other chapels, the owners were usually individual merchant and official families. The bastaixos were the only craft association that managed to establish its own chapel here. People responsible in the port for other people's goods gained a place for their meetings, worship services, and remembrance of deceased companions.

The brotherhood's original chapel has not survived: the porters were later transferred to another one, and the former space became part of the sacristy. But bronze figures of bastaixos bent under loads remain on the main doors, and inside, their work is repeated in stone images. The door leaves show people of the profession thanks to which the very words “of the sea” in the basilica's name once referred to the nearest city shore.