Convent dels Àngels
The Convent was built to house a community of Dominican Tertiary Sisters, which had settled in the land adjoining the Verge dels Àngels chapel in 1497. The actual temple was built between 1562 and 1566. The church was designed by the master Bartomeu Roig in Gothic style, at the height of the sixteenth century.
The complex has a simple façade, with a Renaissance style portal, and two rooms: a gothic nave, which housed the inner rooms and the adjoining Peu de la Creu chapel from 1568-1569, and is the only chapel built in the Renaissance era remaining in Barcelona.
The Convent dels Àngels complex is currently listed as part of Barcelona’s Architectural, Historic and Artistic Heritage. It includes the sixteenth century church and convent. In the eighties, the convent and its surroundings were extensively renovated as part of an urban renewal process that was part of the project “Del Liceu al Seminari”. The restoration, led by the architects Lluís Clotet, Carles Díaz and Ignacio Paricio, added some new elements to the complex: a buttressed building built onto the chapel to reinforce the church, and the mediating building that faces the façade and completes the Plaça dels Àngels. After several proposals to house some of the city’s cultural institutions there, a decision was taken to install the FAD headquarters and integrate the remaining space as part of MACBA, until 2017 when the Museum occupied the entire site.
La Capella
Capella MACBA, which comprises the church, the Capella del Peu de la Creu chapel and the adjoining spaces, was transferred to the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona in May 2003, so that it could be used as an exhibition space. This required a further renovation, in order to optimise its conditions. The church covers 350 m2 at ground floor. It consists of a single nave in five sections, with side chapels between buttresses and a polygonal apse. A false transept created in the 1986 refurbishment extends the final section and includes the stairs for accessing the choir on one side, and an auxiliary exit door on the other.
The Capella del Peu de la Creu, which has a floor area of 150 m2, is adjacent to the church and was also built in the sixteenth century, although in this case it was built in the Renaissance style. The chapel was expanded and reinforced during restorations in 1992. The refurbishments included adding a new building on the side, to buttress, the chapel, and a die-shaped pink-marble lobby linked to the chapel and the buttress, which currently houses municipal public service offices. The upper floor, with a 400 m2 floor area, contains the choir, the installations room and the outdoor terraces.
Since the renovation, both the church and the Renaissance chapel are used for exhibitions, installations and performances organised by MACBA.
MACBA Study Centre
Since 2007, the MACBA Study Centre takes up part of the convent complex: specifically, the third floor of the gothic nave and the mediating building that was built in 1992 and rounds off the western facade of Plaça dels Àngels.
The total floor area of the spaces used by the MACBA is 2,733 m2, distributed through the basement, the ground floor and the upper floors. The project to adapt the Study Centre space was also designed by the architects Lluís Clotet and Ignacio Paricio.
The space in this building is structured into an elongated, narrow shape, and four alcoves that organise the building envelope and are reflected in the form of five arches in the façade. The entrance stairs are located at each end of the building. The reception area is on the ground floor, along with a space set aside for activities and exhibition. On the first floor houses classrooms that are fully equipped with audiovisual equipment, and office space for seminars and teachers. The second floor contains office space and an area for the Archive, and the third floor houses the Library, lit by a skylight. This timber and metal structural element is extraordinarily slender, endowing the space with a quality that contrasts with the walls that hold it up. In the gothic nave, which houses the reading room, the ceiling is resolved using the same type of trusses. Part of this third floor is shared with the FAD, the institution that takes up the remainder of the floors in this part of the building.
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