Barcelona will invest €1.6 million to restore the former Hospital de la Santa Creu

The intervention will focus on the cloister and the façade on Hospital Street, two areas affected by the passage of time and the intensive use of the complex. The project provides for cleaning the stonework, reinforcing architectural elements, renewing roofs and removing added installations that are not part of the original design.

This is not an isolated refurbishment. The City Council had already proposed a broader transformation of the former hospital to turn it into a major cultural lung for el Raval, with works affecting around 12,000 square metres as part of a long-term plan to open the complex up more effectively to the neighbourhood.

The building has more than enough significance to justify the intervention. Built from 1414 onwards, it was Barcelona’s great hospital complex for centuries and was organised around a Gothic cloister that still defines the character of the site today. It is also part of Gaudí’s history: the architect was taken there after being hit by a tram in 1926 and died in the hospital three days later.

Natur System, selected after the public tender, will carry out the works. According to the planned timetable, the restoration of the cloister should be completed in six months and that of the façade in seven, which would allow changes to be seen before the end of the year if there are no delays.

The former hospital is not only heritage. Today it houses institutions such as the Biblioteca de Catalunya, the Biblioteca Sant Pau-Santa Creu, cultural spaces, gardens and facilities that are part of everyday life in el Raval. That mix explains why the refurbishment matters beyond architecture: it can improve a place that already serves as a thoroughfare, refuge, reading room, stage and meeting point.

The area also carries an evident tension between historical value, deterioration and urban pressure. The Rubió i Lluch gardens have been calling for a more careful approach for years, and improving the former hospital may help to stitch this part of the neighbourhood more effectively to Plaça de la Gardunya, La Boqueria and nearby cultural facilities.

For el Raval, the work has something of an overdue repair. It is not enough to preserve a beautiful façade if the surroundings do not encourage people to stay, read, walk or take part in the neighbourhood’s cultural life. If the restoration succeeds in opening up the complex more effectively and making it friendlier to residents and visitors, the former Hospital de la Santa Creu will cease to be merely a monument with history: it will once again feel like a living part of central Barcelona.

UPD: The cultural transformation of el Raval adds a new piece with the start of the rehabilitation of the former Hospital de la Santa Creu. The City Council has launched the first phase of the works, with an investment of more than two million euros to restore the façade and the cloister of the historic complex. The intervention seeks to recover original elements of the building and improve its surroundings, in connection with other key spaces in the neighbourhood such as La Gardunya and the Doctor Fleming gardens. The municipal forecast is for the work to be finished during the first quarter of 2027.

The transformation of the former Hospital de la Santa Creu is also progressing through the future connection between Plaça de la Gardunya and the Rubió i Lluch gardens. BIMSA has already closed the tender period to refurbish and adapt three spaces on the ground floor of the complex, with a budget of 276,994.99 euros excluding VAT. The procedure is currently under evaluation and the successful company has not yet been published, so the specific start of this work remains pending.