Església de la Mare de Déu de Betlem

This guide to the Esglesia de la Mare de Deu de Betlem in Barcelona reaches back to 1544, when the noblewoman Maria Manrique de Lara founded an early Jesuit college on this spot, and follows the church built beside it through a fire in 1671 and its rebuilding as the baroque facade standing here now. You'll hear about the sculptors who carved its saints and nativity scene, and the anarchist militiamen who set the building alight again in 1936. The guide traces what survived both fires, and what that says about this corner of the city.