Hospital of the Holy Cross and Saint Paul, Barcelona, Spain

The Hospital de Sant Pau is located in a complex of buildings located in Barcelona, designed by the architect Lluis Domenech i Montaner, one of the main representatives of Catalan modernism. It was built between 1902 and 1930 in two phases: the first by Domènech himself, between 1902 and 1913, it consists of thirteen modernist buildings; the second, made by his son Pere Domènech i Roura from 1920It consists of six other buildings of moderate modernism and other later buildings. With its main building and its numerous pavilions, the Hospital de San Pablo is, together with the Pere Mata de Reus Institute (also by the same architect), one of the largest ensembles of Catalan modernist architecture.

Built as a hospital modern and innovative, one hundred years after no longer perform these functions, which were taken, from 2009, a new hospital within the same perimeter of the site, in line with the needs of 21st century. After four years of restoration work, the Art Nouveau complex was inaugurated on February 24, 2014, including, among others, United Nations and WHO centers.

Built with the materials and decoration typical of a neo-Gothic modernism, the profusion of ceramics, with prophylactic and decorative functions, exposed brick and sculptures that incorporate an extensive iconography, showing the religious and historicalist view of its author, stands out.

Due to the large number of buildings, their ornamental richness and their level of conservation, the Hospital de Sant Pau is the largest complex of Catalan modernist architecture.

History
The construction of the Santa Creu i Sant Pau hospital allowed the services of the Santa Creu hospital, a hospital institution created in the 15th century, to have the precarious facilities for the health conditions required in late nineteenth century. Its construction, however, was not due to this need for renovation, but rather to a decision by Pau Gil i Serra, a Barcelona banker established for 62 years in Paris. Pau Gil, director of Banking Gil, died unmarried in 1896 at his Paris residence, and in his testament he arranged to be buried in Barcelona with his parents, to liquidate the bank and to spend half of the assets resulting from the liquidation for the construction of a “new hospital” in Barcelona under the name of Sant Pau, dedicated to assisting the poor and which should be managed by a recognized institution.

The need to change the hospital of the Holy Cross, along with the availability of new hospital facilities that someone had to manage, resulted in the creation of this new institution that merged, in its name, the original of the medieval hospital and the one wished by the patron of the new hospital complex.

However, the different interests of the representatives of the Hospital de la Santa Creu and the executors of Pau Gil did not make this creation process easy.

Hospital de la Santa Creu de Barcelona
The Hospital de la Santa Creu de Barcelona originated in 1401, when the six existing hospitals in Barcelona were merged: the Hospital Desvilar or the Almoina (1308), and the hospital of Marcús (12th century), they were governed by the city council; the Columbus hospital (12th-13th centuries), and the Vilar or Sant Macià hospital, governed by the bishopric; the hospital of Santa Eulàlia (12th century), and the hospital of Santa Margarida, which depended on the cathedral chapter of Barcelona.

The first of February of 1401 the Consell de Cent and Chapter of the Cathedral of Barcelona agree to unify all six hospitals, decreed his name, Hospital Santa Cruz, and its location, the Raval of the city, on the site where was Columbus Hospital and its surrounding courtyards. On February 13 of the same year, construction of the new hospital began, which would be completed in 1450; Guillem Abiell was the master builder contracted in 1407 for the construction of the cloister. On September 3, the schismatic pope Benedict XIII of AvignonPere de Luna donated the founding bull of the Hospital de la Santa Creu de Barcelona, thus confirming the agreement between the bishopric and the Consell de Cent.

On March 25 of 1629 began to build, attached to the north wall of the hospital, convalescent House (now Institute of Catalan Studies), the works of which were completed in 1680, at the same time he came under the invocation of St. Paul. In 1764, in front of the convalescence house, the College of Surgery (now the Academy of Medicine) was built, by Ventura Rodríguez.

This hospital was the only one in the city for five centuries until, at the end of the nineteenth century, it became inadequate due to the large population of the city.

In the late nineteenth century, modern hygienist trends recommended that hospitals be out of urban centers, as well as limiting the number of beds. The hospital building, nestled between orchards and outside ramparts in the 15th century, had been left in the middle of an urban space filled with unhealthy industries in the 19th century. However, the location in the historic center had some minority defenders; in addition, the model of health management for the poor was historically based on the Christian obligation of charity, being funded by voluntary alms and legacies. It was a residual model of when the church had economic power and faced a new, progressive current that advocated for civic charity, funded and controlled by political power (municipal or state), where health and social care were a right of the poor and not a voluntary concession. It must, therefore, be funded by taxes and not by alms.

Modernist

Space design
The set was designed to occupy an area of 145,470 m², equivalent to nine blocks in the Eixample.

Domènech i Montaner enjoyed absolute freedom in the design, construction and decoration of the hospital, which allowed him to widely deploy all the knowledge accumulated in the workshop of the Castle of the Three Dragons created after the ‘ Universal Exhibition of Barcelona (1888), where it featured artisans who would work with him at the Sant Pau hospital, such as Eusebi Arnau or the Pujol i Bausis factory.

He had had the opportunity to develop concepts and techniques applicable to a health center at the Pere Mata Institute in Reus, which he had just built. He also studied different solutions that were implemented in Europe (lariboisière hospital in Paris, St.Thomas in London, Brugmann in Laeken (Belgium) and the military hospital in Toul), and finally presents a program based on isolated pavilions linked higienicoarquitectònic with each other for an underground gallery, an absolutely innovative solution.

The selected plot fulfilled important health aspects which are no longer taken into account, such as the “location at the foot of the mountain in a remote area of the city with sea views”, although others would still be valid today. in day time, as having a large proportion of landscaped interior space where patients and visitors could wander and be outdoors, feeling more in a sanatorium than in a closed hospital. This is possible thanks to Domènech’s conception of a hospital complex with its own urban layout oriented on a north-south axis, enjoying maximum solar radiation.towards the main facades. The architect’s innovative vision gives the ensemble its own personality, which shies away from the concept of “hospital-palace” and approaches “garden city”, a small city embedded in the city, a functional, aesthetic whole., human and modern.

In addition, with this interior distribution of his own, the architect achieved an alignment contrary to the Cerdà plot, thus manifesting his opposition to the urban design of the Eixample, of which he was an active detractor.

Original project
The original project conceived by Lluís Domènech i Montaner consisted of 48 pavilions built according to a design pattern and distributed around two main axes (south-north and east-west) 50 meters wide, with complementary streets of 30 meters. These main axes, located on the diagonals of the closed square of the whole, form a cross that is the ubiquitous symbol of the hospital and which refers to the original hospital.

Twenty-five of the pavilions were to be one-story, eleven-storey and twelve were for various services. All of them had a basement and were interconnected by underground galleries so that staff and patients could move around without having to go outside. They also acted as technical galleries to place facilities and external conduits in the pavilions, facilitating their maintenance.

The different heights had to allow to smooth the visual effect of the slope of the terrain. The only ones that differed in shape and height were the administration (main building), the religious community that served the services – located in the middle of the cross – and the one in operation, halfway between the two.

The patients’ wards had a large rectangular hospitalization room, with a modular structure composed of a succession of eight slightly pointed arches with seven intermediate turns, supported by pillars between windows. At one end of the central nave, Domènech arranged two cylindrical elements: the water tank and a service space that included a round room, next to the access, conceived as a “day room” for the sick and their relatives. Each floor had a separate space for healthcare staff.

The main facade of the pavilions is formed by the entrance door, very ornate with a stone frame and floral decoration. Above the door it appears the richest decorative and symbolic respect to the identity of the pavilion and has the pattern or patterns inside a shrine flanked by two pinnacles with glazed tiles on the ends. In some cases, the set is completed with angelic figures next to the temple with the pleading.

It highlights the precise description of the materials that Domènech made in the specifications of the work. It describes the qualities, thicknesses, colors, sizes and finishes. The main materials are brick, the stone of Montjuïc to sculptures, friezes and decorative elements; the Macael marble for the stairs of the administration building and the nummulitic stone of Girona for the rest; monochrome glazed Arabic tiles of various colors to decorate the roofs; ceramic mosaic and hydraulic flooring; pine woods from Russia and Sweden.

Between the pavilions was a garden area with a sidewalk that led to two green spaces stuck on the north side of a pavilion and to the south of the adjoining one, obtaining one area for winter and another for summer. This landscaping was also carefully designed with the service in mind, which was to create a healthy and peaceful environment for the sick who resided. Planted trees include Indian chestnut, American maple, Judean tree, cedar, cypress, taxus or white fir.

The design of the space also included the separation of the pavilions between men and women. The men on the east side bear the names of male protective saints, and the women on the west are the names of saints or the advocates of the Virgin. Special care was taken to separate the surgical pavilions from those for contagious or infectious diseases, and within them reserved small pavilions (finally not built) for quarantine.

Another aspect of the absolutely innovative initial design had to do with the use of new technologies, both techniques and comfort, as well as heating and electric light, which was generated in the same premises, as those referred to in medicine. an important department of pharmacy that must be interpreted as a research activity, typical of a university.

The result of the intended design was a ratio of 145 m² per bed, with service and garden spaces, a ratio that was much higher than European standards of 100 m². In the purest modernist fashion, Domènech acted in this work as an integral artist taking care of all the functional aspects and the decorative arts to the last detail.

Emblems
The hospital is full of religious iconography and symbols designed and decided directly by Domènech. The stated purpose of the buildings of the Gil legacy “to be marked with fixed delimitation and own name, giving as much individuality as possible to the hospital of Sant Pau, in a general plan”, is made in numerous emblems that decorate facades and interiors from the hospital. Among the symbols that are constantly repeated, often in small format as part of a decoration or embedded in borders or finishing off more complex traceries, are the initials of the patrons “P” of Pau and “G” of Gil, the cross of the ‘hospital occupying the diagonals of a rhombus, the patent cross in the center of a square or a circle, two or four bars, etc. There are also more complex emblems with a heraldic representation,

Obtained from the old emblem: a shield crowned with two barracks, one with the patent white cross and red background, and the other with the bars and the cross of the Barcelona coat of arms.
Representing the assembled hospitals: the old emblem of the Holy Cross hospital, with a sword symbolizing Saint Paul, and an open book with the name of the saint.
Toisó d’Or: with the Catalan bars and the Toisó d’Or order necklace, a heraldic symbolism that goes back to 1445 with the appointment of the counts of Barcelona as members of the order.
Paul Gil Shield: Derived from the shield of the assembled hospitals, he keeps his form, sword and book with the name of the saint, but replaces the bars and the cross with the initials PG.
On the eardrums of the main facade windows is the heraldic symbolism described, combined with the attributes of the evangelists: a book, a bull, a lion and an angel replacing the eagle of St. John the Evangelist. The wings that appear on the bull and the lion symbolize the spiritualization and the advancement of light to eternity.

Current construction
The development of the project underwent significant changes that have shaped the current hospital complex.

The legacy of Pau Gil was exhausted in 1911 when, in addition to buying the land, 10 pavilions had been made: the administration, operations, two minor reconnaissance and 6 nursing. These are the most modernist- style pavilions with the richest artistic decoration. Construction was stopped until 1914, with patronage being obtained for two more pavilions.

In 1921 the second phase begins under the direction of Domènech i Roura, in which the Barcelona City Council provided financing with the purchase of the space and buildings of the old medieval hospital. The budget reduction and the change of architectural style results in more austere pavilions and a lack of decorative elements. However, the first two pavilions made by Domènech i Roura (Sant Manuel and the Assumption) are still twins from the beginning, denoting the active participation of their father. Other unique buildings, such as the Convalescence pavilion, the church and the kitchen pavilion, and the pharmacy closing the central street of the complex, are also being built during this phase.

With the final configuration of this second phase, completed in 1925, the hospital will continue until the 1960’s, where facilities are added without any respect to the original work, in addition to the Puigvert Foundation for Nephrology.

Modernist Pavilions

Administration building
1902-1911
Main building and official façade of the hospital
Set of three bodies, a central one with a neogothic structure, with an imposing clock tower and with an important iconographic decoration. The side bodies are more conventional in design, though they contain quite a few Modernist decorative elements.

Operations building
1902-1911
Located in the center of the main street
It is a three-story, semi-basement building. His patron saints are Saint Cosme and Saint Damian, trustees of the doctors and apothecaries. The iconographic program is not limited to these figures, but it contains a large sculptural and ceramic sample.

San Salvador and San Leopold
1902-1911
First and second pavilions, east side after accessing the enclosure
Leopold’s name was in honor of Leopold Gil and Leopold, nephew of the patron, and who acted as a model for sculpture.

The Most Pure; Virgin of Carmen; Virgin of Mercy; Virgin of Montserrat
1902-1911
The first four pavilions on the west side after access
They are twin pavilions, with the exception of the transformations and extensions that have been subsequently suffered

St. George and St. Apollonia
1902-1911
On both sides of the administration building
They are two small isolated pavilions that were used to recognize doubtful cases of being infectious.

San Rafael
1914-1918
Third pavilion on the east side after access to the enclosure
It was the first built with a different patronage from Pau Gil. It was funded by Rafael Rabell and his daughter Concepción. In its decoration, the interior mosaics and the outer stone tracery, the initials “R” referring to the patron rather than the ubiquitous “G” appear in the previous pavilions.

Domènech and Roura Pavilions

San Manuel and the Asuncio’n
1922
Still in modernist style, that of San Manuel was funded by the Mariné Molins brothers. The Assumption was made with the contribution of Lluïsa Rabell i Patxot, in memory of her mother, Assumption. The latter is attached to the construction of the Puigvert Foundation and has undergone many alterations.

Church
1922-1925
In Av. Sant Antoni Ma. Claret
It consists of a central nave and two lateral ones with an apse and a girola, with a belfry dome on the cruise.

Convent building
1920s
In the middle of the junction and closing the modernist complex
In fact, there are three buildings together. The power station was dedicated to the convent of the sisters who cared for the hospital; to the west the pharmacy was located and the east one had the kitchens, but later the café was installed. Of particular note is the access to this east wing, which is decorated with the facade of the Baroque church of Santa Marta, which was destroyed when the Via Laietana was built and moved here in 1928.

Santa Victoria
1926
In Av. Sant Antoni Ma. Claret
The one for Santa Victoria was built with the contributions of Elvira and Emilia Llagostera, who had donated it to Pope Benedict XV, who donated it to the hospital, as well as the contribution of Francesca Prat, v. of Barbey.

St. Frederick and the Sacred Heart (demolished)
1928
Sant Frederic is a smaller pavilion to the rest that was financed by Frederic Benessat. The Sacred Heart was a pavilion funded with various contributions that had direct access from Sant Quintí Street. It was a conventional line building which was demolished in 2011.

Saint Anthony
1929
Between convent building and convalescence
It is the one that has the most adulterated style in its format of floor, its height with respect to the rest and the finishes. In addition it has undergone many extensions without any architectural interest.

Administration Building
The administration building is located just behind the main entrance and gives the official image of the complex. Its façade is the most decorated in the whole and is the tallest, as well as being topped by a tower that gives it an imposing air.

Here Domènech took the opportunity to display the use of ceramics and ornamental mosaics and a large sculptural ensemble. He took advantage of the religious nature of the institution that had to manage the hospital, to unfold an iconography that covered the different sensitivities of the historical hospitals that formed the institution, and emphasized the beneficial nature of the new hospital. His mastery of Christian symbolism and heraldry allowed him to be the author of the designs to the smallest detail.

He was soon criticized for setting up a hospital which “had more the air of residence for royalty, than for the stay of ‘poor patients’, and on the occasion of its official inauguration, Alfonso XIII himself said:’ You are the locals are paradoxical, a palace is set for your sick and a block for your king. ”

The building consists of three bodies. The central, with most of the iconography on its façade, contains the most institutional spaces and on which the clock tower stands; both sides are slightly angled relative to the central one, giving the whole of a receptive concavity, as is its main access function. The space between the street fence and the access to the building provides the distance that allows to observe the majesty of the complex and has a discreet gardening surrounding the double staircase that leads from the street to the porch of the building. In the center of the stairs and presiding over the entrance is the monument to the patron Pau Gil, a set of

The structure of the two lateral bodies is three levels and has a less sumptuous decoration than the central body, with large windows glazed at the level of the ground floor, twin windows on the first floor and trilobules on the second. In both buildings, the end facing the street is wider than the rest of the block and inside it houses noble rooms; to the east is the Cambó library and to the west is the archive room, spaces that were damaged with a “more functional” use during the 20th century and are currently being restored.

Building Operations

The Operations building is in the middle of Central Street, just behind a term cross that replicates the existing one in the old hospital. It is a pavilion with a unique design and dedicated to doctors; hence his invocation to the Saints Cosme and Damian, patrons of medicine. It has a basement and three floors, and is accessed with a short but magnificent staircase that ends on a porch under a grandstand that protects the entrance.

It is a three-body building: a central one that concentrates most of the iconography and two side wings with large windows and the mosaic images of the patron saints, by Maragliano. Three other mosaic panels decorate the side and rear windows: they are invocations of the Marededéu of the Abandoned, of the Mercè and of the Assumption. The first is a thirsty image with the child and accompanied by a speaker. La Marededéu de la Mercè, patron saint of Barcelona, is flanked by two male portraits, possibly depicting Saint Peter Nolasc and Bishop Jaume Català. The goddess of the Assumption appears taken to heaven by angels. The window pediments follow blueprints similar to the rest. On the third floor of the central body are large ceramic panels with eagles with blue wings unfolded, bearing the names of famous doctors: Letamendi, Mendoza, Giné (Jiner, in the spelling of the time), Gimbernat, Virgil, Marsillach, Torrent and Soler. Both these panels, as well as the windows and the gallery on the second floor of the central body, are framed in columns and arches in stone, and contain numerous elements of great iconographic value: canopies, pinnacles, gargoyles, taps., angels, coats of arms of Barcelona and a large angel with wings open at the top of the main façade and another at the rear. The shield on the pediment is the emblem of the assembled hospitals; it is crowned and protected by two lions. It is the work of Arnau, while the rest of the sculptural pieces in this pavilion are by Gargallo.

The Operations building had disinfection areas in the basement; operating rooms, anesthesia and postoperative rooms on the first floor; rooms for small operations on the second floor; and technical areas of X-ray and sterilization on the third floor.

Craftsmen and Contributors
The architect Domènech i Montaner conceived until the last decorative details that had to fulfill at the same time the functionality to create an ideal environment for the sick and the technical staff. The initial draft published in the specifications of the works was diminished for economic reasons; There is a considerable difference between the administration building, referring to the original project, and the last pavilions built.

Domènech designed a complex ornamental program with the support of his regular team of collaborating craftsmen, some of them participants in the craftsman’s workshop that Domènech installed together with Gallissà in the Castle of the Three Dragons.

Highlights include ceramics, mosaic, sculptures, stained glass and forging. The most prominent of all is the ceramics, which, in addition to their aesthetic characteristics, fulfills a hygienic function especially demanded by the architect in the project.

The manufacturers involved in the production of ceramics include:

The glazed pottery factory of Cristòfol Guillamont de Alcora who made the white and blue hemispherical pieces on the porch and back facade of the administration building. This design had been used by Domènech in the dining room of the Spain inn.
The Elies Peris i cia factory. de Onda made the hospital pieces with great drawings made with the technique of the trepa that decorate the eardrums on doors and windows. He also produced blue and white baseboards and blue and white earthenware flooring.
The Pujol i Bausis factory in Cornellà de Llobregat produced hand-painted or stamped ceramics from the vaults of the administration building and other special pieces.
The Josep Orriols i Pons factory produced other ornamental and complementary parts.

The general flooring is in portland and marble, but in the noble areas, and especially in the administration pavilion, Roman mosaic, red clay tile combined with blue and white decorated tile, and also hydraulic tile are combined. Among the manufacturers that participated were the factories “Romeu and Escofet”, “sons of Miquel Nolla”, “children of J. Llevat” and “Cosme Toda”. The artificial stone elements, as well as the hydraulic pavement, were the product of “M. by C. Butsems & Fradera », a cement maker. The toilets were from the factory “Francesc Sangrà”.

The stained glass in all the pavilions, including the church and the convalescence house, were produced by Casa Rigalt i Granell. They denote a less sophisticated design, typical of late modernism. The design of those of the first period corresponds to Labarta and those of the period of Domènech i Roura were designed by the painter Miquel Farré i Albagés.

The designers include Lluís Gargallo, brother of Pau Gargallo, to whom the drawings on the ceramic panels are attributed, and the sculptor Francesc Madurell i Torres, designer of the relief ceramics in the administration pavilion.

The tiles are the work of Mario Maragliano, designed by Francesc Labarta, in the case of exterior panels. Maragliano worked from 1907 to 1911, while the last panels of the facades with the history of the hospital are the work of Lluís Brú, and are from 1923.

The numerous sculptures on the site are the work of Pau Gargallo i Catalán and Eusebi Arnau, and the architectural sculpture is the work of Francesc Modolell.

Josep Perpinyà was in charge of the elements of wrought iron and artistic locksmith.

For the management of the entire work, Domènech i Montaner had a team of architects headed by his son Pere Domènech i Roura, including Enric Catà i Catà and his son-in-law Francesc Guàrdia i Vial.

Ceramics
Domènech i Montaner placed great importance on ceramics, of which he was an enthusiastic and scholar. In the late nineteenth century, the revival of pottery was considered a transmitter of ancient values, making it an important part of nationalist ideology. This vision furthered his study and interest in recovery and collecting. Outstanding collectors were Gallissà, Ramon Casas, Rusiñol or Marià Fortuny, who would share his knowledge of reflection ceramics with Baron Charles Davillier., a large diffuser of Catalan ceramics. In this context, Domènech had the best opportunity to develop a comprehensive program, which he designed in detail.

The broad ceramic set of the hospital set can be classified into four groups, according to Bohigas:

Pieces that repeat a drawing forming plots like turns or sweepers.
Unique patterned tiles for the entire surface. There are heraldic, zoomorphic or phytomorphic themed drawings.
Embossed glazed ceramics, ribbons or body elements, used in coatings.
Glazed ceramic trench.

Mosaic
The use of the mosaic within the modernist enclosure is much more modest than in other contemporary buildings, such as the Palau de la Música Catalana, designed by Domènech i Montaner. Despite the similarity of the pictorial results, the hygienic concept and the cost of making them reduced the use of the mosaic to more sumptuous than functional spaces. There are three types of use:

In the noble areas of the administration building: auditorium vaults, main entrance, assembly hall…
On the panels with characters from certain pavilions: St. George and St. Apollonia in the pavilions of his name and St. Damian and St. Cosme in the Operations Pavilion.
The sixteen exterior panels that tell the story of the hospital.

Surrounding the administration building, at the height of the first floor, are sixteen tiled panels, four visible directly from the street and the rest from inside the precinct, which tell the story of the hospital from its medieval origins until the creation of the modernist healthcare center. They obey a didactic function to make known to the citizenry the ancestral commitment to have a health for all. They follow a chronological order, with the exception of the last two, which were installed in an enabled corner of the facade at the end of the works and are located between those in the seventh and eighth places.

The first fourteen are the work of Mario Maragliano, following drawings by Francesc Labarta; the last two dates from 1923 and were made by Lluís Brú.

Sculpture
Sculpture at the Hospital de Sant Pau plays a key role in the iconographic deployment requested by the patron and interpreted and designed by Domènech i Montaner. The two key artists in this performance were Eusebi Arnau and his pupil Pau Gargallo.

Arnau is responsible for the pieces that the contracts describe as “2-meter and 1.5-by-2-meter images”, which is to say the free figures that surround the administration building and the patterns in the different pavilions. Also he is the author of the central shield of the facade.

Gargallo designed all the ornamental figures and those that decorate the central body of the administration building and the clock tower, but the architectural sculpture that fills every corner of the pavilions is the work of Francesc Modolell.

The stone, like most buildings of the time, came from the Montjuïc quarry, although nummulitic stone from Girona was used in certain parts with much wear and tear, such as the steps on the steps.

Stained glass
All the stained glass windows were made by Rigalt i Granell House. Belgian, Flemish, Cathedral, privileged and white.

The stained glass windows have a lower effect on this work than on others of Domènech i Montaner, such as the Lleó Morera house or the Navàs house. The specification already specified that the stained glass windows would be light and simple in color, except for the noble floors of the administration building, the library, the assembly hall, the museum and the access doors to the offices. of the ground floor. Modernist designers used the stained-glass windows as a symbol and for creating spaces for color and atmosphere; this is why Domènech limited the color to the administrative and regal areas, leaving the target for the nursing areas. This break with the modernist line of the rest of the set is probably due to a budget adjustment. The designs are from Labarta and repeat the historicist iconography of representation of the original hospitals and the patron.

The stained glass windows in the Domènech and Roura pavilions are designed by Miquel Farré i Albagés.

Forge
The gates are based on the gothic grille schemes. The main access consists of three two-leaf doors each with vertical bars finished in geometrically shaped flower beds; All of them are sewn from an elliptical piece with a “T” profile and a fused contour that starts near the highest hinge and, after traveling through the space, ends near the base with a final scroll. The lower part of the door is made of iron with a slight decoration simulating a whip coup. The upper part of the union of the two leaves when closed is crowned by a patent cross and two angels guarding it. The large garden space up to the front of the main building is closed by a grid of the same design, supported every 10 meters by a set of threepillars brick vitrallats crowned in stone rosettes and heraldic decoration.

In the rest of the enclosure the forging is scarce as there are grilles on the windows and the few balconies that exist are made of stone. Apart from some decorative elements in the administration building, such as the large lamppost in the center of the stairs of honor, also in the upper parts of this building and the clock tower can be found some elements security with a very discreet decoration, almost nineteenth-century.

Restoration
Between 2010 and 2014, the modernist complex has been thoroughly restored, with three main premises: to recover the original project of Domènech i Montaner, which has been dilapidated in some places; transforming the pavilions into functional workspaces; and apply new criteria of sustainability and energy saving to the whole. The site has been transformed into a Knowledge Center with a number of institutions, companies and organizations dedicated to research and research in the field of health, sustainability and education.

Restored Pavilions:

Administration: It has been transformed into a set of multipurpose functional rooms and spaces, as well as the Historical Archive of the Hospital. The architects responsible for the restoration were Xavier Guitart and Joan Nogué.
San Manuel: Refurbished by Víctor Argentí, Albert Casals and José Luis González, this pavilion is now home to Casa Asia and the United Nations University (UNU).
Saint Leopold: It is currently home to the European Forestry Institute (EFI), the UN-Habitat Resilient Cities Program and the Global Universities Network for Global Innovation (GUNI). The pavilion was adapted by Ramon Calonge, and the interior of Xavier Guitart was rehabilitated.
Nuestra Señora de la Mercè: restored by Josep Emili Hernández-Cros on the outside and Mercè Zazurca on the inside, this space now houses the institutions Global Water Operators Network (GWOPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Sant Jordi: dedicated to temporary exhibitions, the restoration works have been directed by Rafael Vila.
Santa Apollonia: The building was renovated by Xavier Guitart.

New Hospital
At the turn of the 21st century, the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau began its third transfer from birth, in order to be able to respond to the new health needs of Catalan society. The New Hospital was built in 2000 in the northern part of the precinct, at the corner of Mas Casanovas and Sant Quintí streets. This new building consists of 5 large blocks that communicate with each other by a large lobby that distributes the circulation. Block A of the New Hospital accommodates all the outpatient consultations of the center, while the other 4 blocks are allocated for hospitalization at its upper levels, reserving the lower levels for the Emergency, ICU, operating rooms and Radiology.

At the attendance level each year they attend 35,000 patients admitted and more than 145,000 emergencies. Outpatient visits receive 350,000 visits annually and the Day Hospital caters to 75,000 users. It has 136 Day Hospital points, 644 beds and 21 operating rooms.