Plaça Sant Jaume
Plaça de Sant Jaume is a square in the Old City of Barcelona, right at the city’s center and the heart of Catalonia. It is home to two important buildings that face each other: the Palace of the Generalitat of Catalonia and Barcelona City Hall.
The square dates from the early 1800s, when City Hall got a new main façade and the nearby church of Sant Jaume was demolished. It sits where the old Roman city Barcino stood, at the crossing of the main streets cardo and decumanus. The forum and the Temple of Augustus were here, and four columns from the temple remain on Mont Tàber, seen from Paradís Street.
The square is named after the church of Sant Jaume, which stood on the site since medieval times. The city council used the church’s porch for meetings until it bought nearby houses to create its headquarters on the neighboring street. The old church was torn down in 1823 when Ferran Street was built, and this allowed the square to be rebuilt as it is today.
Before these changes, the area was a small angular space; the rest of the future plaza was occupied by the church, its cemetery, and the houses of the Magistracy and the General Court of the Veguer. The square has also been called Constitution Square at various times; a plaque with that name was on the City Hall façade but was removed in 2013.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 08:01 (CET).