During the transformation of the Cathedral of Barcelona in the 14th century, the parishes in the district of Ribera decided to erect a new church that would become one of the major benchmarks of Catalan Gothic.

Alfonso V of Aragon, ‘the benign’, laid the first stone of the temple in March 1329 to crown the conquest of Sardinia and the expansion of the Catalan dominion of the Mediterranean. The Cathedral of the Sea was built in record time: only 54 years. The whole district of Ribera participated with money and by taking, one-by-one, the stones from La Foixarda, the quarry of Montjuïc.

Observed from the outside, Santa Maria del Mar is compact, smooth, without large openings or ornaments. On the other hand, the arrangement is far from the typical configuration of the time, making room for a single open space. And the naves are built in such a way that they seem to be of a single piece.

One must pay special attention to the light. Its structure of a compact block makes it enter precisely on all four sides of the Church, without creating shadows and plays of light typical of Gothic churches. The rose window in the flamboyant style is especially remarkable.

The beauty of Santa Maria del Mar is rational and abstract and has come to captivate great architects such as Le Corbusier.