The Eixample block between Consell de Cent, Viladomat, Diputació and Borrell was presided over until 1998 by the Germanetes dels Pobres convent-asylum. Today, its space is occupied by the so-called Emma gardens in Barcelona. But in a corner there are still a dozen fragments of the old columns of the religious building that were safeguarded and that is currently the scene of children's games.
The convent was built between 1881 and 1884 to house a congregation of the aforementioned religious order, dedicated to the care of the elderly. It maintained its activity for more than a century. In 1996, the inmates were transferred to the asylum house in Plaza Tetuan, also run by the Germanetes. Two years later, the site was acquired by the Barcelona City Council and the Hospital Clínic to dedicate it to school and social health facilities.
In 2004, the demolition of the old convent was completed, but four years earlier the interior of the block, which occupied the asylum's garden, had already been opened to the public. Today, these gardens are known as Emma of Barcelona. She was a religious daughter of Guifré el Pilós who, while still very young, was entrusted to the nuns of the monastery of Sant Joan de Ter, today Sant Joan de las Abadesses. Emma became abbess at age 17, a position she held until her death in 942.
The monastery was founded by his father in 887 in order to repopulate that area of central Catalonia, which had been depopulated as a result of the Aissó rebellion, which between 826 and 827 pitted the native nobles against the Franks after the conquest Carolingian. Under her rule, Emma greatly increased the patrimony of the monastery. Today, the name of the gardens recalls her figure, and the remains of the columns, the old asylum of the Germanetes.
