Who doesn’t know the Expiatory Church of the Sacred Heart (Temple Expiatori del Sagrat Cor)? For more than 50 years now, the Sacred Heart church has crowned the highest peak of the Collserola hills, and it has become an emblem of the city and of the Barcelona skyline as seen with your back to the sea. Designed by Enric Sagnier i Villavecchia, an architect who left Barcelona a great architectural legacy, it was begun in 1902 and not completed until 1961, by which time it was in the hands of his son, Josep Maria Sagnier i Vidal. The building has two parts: the crypt below, in neo-Byzantine style, and the church above, with its Gothic verticality.

Expiatory Church of the Sacred Heart, Tibidabo

At the end of the 19th century, following rumours that a hotel-casino was going to be built (one did end up being built nearby: see the Casino de la Rabassada), a Junta de Caballeros Católicos (Board of Catholic Gentlemen) bought the land and gave it to John Bosco during his visit to Barcelona.

In 1886 a small neo-Gothic hermitage was built. Today it stands attached to the church and is still a place of pilgrimage for many Catholics.

Sacred Heart hermitage, Tibidabo (Barcelona)

The hermitage, witness to all the changes Barcelona has gone through over the years, also once shared the site with a Mudéjar-style pavilion that served as a viewpoint during the 1888 Universal Exhibition. The views from this high point of the city are still admired today, although the panorama you glimpse from here is very different from the one back then.