Barcelona is a nonstop city, full of amazing and well-known tourist attractions: Sagrada Familia, Park Güell, and other Gaudí structures such as Casa Batlló and La Pedrera…
But what most people ignore is the large quantity of fascinating secrets this city hides. Today I am going to show you a well-kept one; in fact, most locals don’t know about the existence of this architectural and historical paradise.
My secret for you today is Sant Pau del Camp, a little Benedictine monastery very close to Paral·lel metro station, in the El Raval neighbourhood. It is a magical place in the middle of crowded Barcelona.
It is a real mystery for us since we don’t have much information about its construction. But we do know it was already there in 911, thanks to the tombstone with this year located in the monastery.
I don’t want to bore you with facts about years, design, and architecture… But I will definitely invite you to visit this monument, just go inside and breathe!
I promise that if you do this, you will feel like you just entered a time machine and gotten out in the Middle Ages, and some knight will cross the room with his armor.
Another curious detail is the large list of artists that visited Sant Pau del Campfor** **inspiration; for example, Picasso got his inspiration for his famous painting *Las señoritas de Avignon *(Les Demoiselles d’Avignon; *The Young Ladies of Avignon) *while visiting Sant Pau del Camp.
![Sant Pau del Camp](https://db82kmzzne7f2.cloudfront.net/ghost-blog/2014/09/Screen-Shot-2014-09-01-at-14.00.39.png)Las señoritas de Avignon- Pablo Picasso If you want to visit this Barcelona secret, check out its [website](http://webs.ono.com/santpaudelcamp/cas/informacion.htm) (Admission is free, but you have to notify the monastery of your visit beforehand)
Hope you liked this little secret, see you soon! ?