BRIEF HISTORY
Around the first century it was built a Roman water tank to provide water to the public baths. Between the V and X century the water deposit was transformed into a religious building taking advance of the exterior walls of the tank conditioning its dimensions. In 966 A.D. a new church was built, the inner walls were demolished and the biggest wall was preserved as part of the new structure (northern wall of the current church).
Between the 10th to 11th centuries, the church was remodeled. The changes remained until the 18th century.
In 1725 the church was demolished and again, the thick wall (northern wall) was preserved. An entirely new church was made of rubble masonry using the stones from older constructions, except the front facade, which was constructed with new nicely carved sand stones.
The construction of the new church took 27 years (1725-1752). The bell tower was the last section to be constructed (1750-1752). During the civil war in Spain (1936), all the art work from the church was burned but the structure didn’t suffer any damage.
After the civil war, the church was transformed into a garage. On the south wall, new big openings were carved to allow the entrance of trucks. In 1970 the building was returned to the church.
To restore the original appearance of the interior of the church, some works have been done such as placing wooden altar pieces and decorations. In addition, all chapels’ wall-paintings were painted to recreate the old appearance. In 2010, other restoration activities took place such as replacing the roof of the first two chapels from east to west on the second level in both sides of the nave. The process of replacing the whole roof of the main nave, and the chapels on the second level started in November 2016.
ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES AND GEOMETRY
The church was built in the Neo-classical style with some baroque features presented on the front facade. The church’s structural system consists of 14 main piers supporting the weight of the church. The nave is made of a barrel vault that spans 13m, and towers at 19m.
There are 4 chapels on each side of the church spanning 4m in the longitudinal direction. The interior of the church is covered with a layer of plaster which makes it difficult to determine the compositions of the interior walls and columns. That being said, few surviving pictures from the 2nd level show a stone rubble wall composition. This is highly plausible since all external walls are built with stone rubble, except the front facade which is built with large stone blocks.
It was not possible to have graphic information of the church, so the plans that have been made don’t have exactly measurements.
DAMAGE AND DIAGNOSIS
The church of San Baldiri has some structural problems caused by soil settlement. The kinematic mechanism developed in the nave is a result of the weakness of the soil and eventually of the structure. To confirm the evolution of the settlement more studies are suggested in the section for proposals of the present report.
REFERENCES
[1] http://www.aldeaglobal.net/artmedieval/castella/Sant%20Baldiri%20de%20Llobregat.htm
[2] Oña, M. C. (2001). L´Església de Sant Baldiri Art i Història. Sant Boi de Llobregat: Parròquia de Sant Baldiri.
[3] Carbonell, J. S. (1998). Edilicia Cristiana hispana de la antigüedad tardía: Tarraconensis. Barcelona: Universidad de Barcelona.