Baixada de Santa Eulàlia

Saint Eulàlia was a young martyr who was tortured 13 times, as many times as she was years old, for trying to stop the Roman governor of Barcelona, Dacianus, from enforcing the persecution of Christians dictated by the emperor Diocletian. In 254-55 AD, when she petitioned the governor, Eulàlia was imprisoned. The young woman refused to renounce her Christian faith and was condemned to suffer the 13 martyrdoms that ended her life.

One of these, and the most striking part of the legend, explains how Eulalia was locked in a barrel full of broken glass and keys that was then rolled down the slope from the top of the street known today as the Baixada de Santa Eulalia (Saint Eulalia's Descent).

Just where Baixada de Santa Eulàlia meets Carrer de Sant Sever, there is a small chapel dedicated to the saint, which takes advantage of the curve formed by the two unaligned façades. The figure of the saint is protected by a baldaquin canopy decorated with iron and mosaic ornamentation. Underneath there is an inscription with verses that the poet Jacint Verdaguer composed about the martyrdom of Saint Eulàlia.