Why was the fountain in Plaça de Sant Just built?

The Sant Just fountain is one of the oldest in the city.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
19 May 2022 Thursday 23:06
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Why was the fountain in Plaça de Sant Just built?

The Sant Just fountain is one of the oldest in the city. Its construction is linked to Joan Fivaller, one of the most important patricians of medieval Barcelona and a prominent member of the Consell de Cent. The fountain, fed with water from Collserola, was one of the initiatives for the supply of drinking water, a problem in the city at that time, since the water that came from the Besòs through the Rec Comtal was used for irrigation and industrial activities.

The origin of the fountain dates back to 1427, although some sources consider it to be earlier. In any case, legend has it that, while Fivaller was hunting in Collserola, he discovered a spring whose water he had brought to the city. One of the reliefs that decorate the fountain represents a falcon catching a partridge, in memory of the hunts of the influential citizen.

The fountain is rectangular in shape and is attached to the rear of the group of buildings between Lledó and Palma de Sant Just streets. In addition to the relief of the falcon, there is another that represents Sant Just holding the martyr's palm. Three other human heads decorate the front of the fountain. It is believed that originally water sprang from these heads. Not today anymore. There are only two bronze griffins between the heads.

Initially, the fountain was inside the parish cemetery. When this type of necropolis was prohibited within the city in 1831, it was restored and the balustrade that it currently has at the top was added.

Joan Fivaller, the promoter of the fountain, gained great notoriety in 1416, when as the second conseller of Barcelona, ​​he led a delegation to demand from King Fernando de Antequera the payment of the tax known as vectigal. This taxed the purchase and export of meat outside the principality and that was not satisfied from the new court of the King of Aragon. Fernando de Antequera occupied the Aragonese throne in 1412, after his uncle, Martí l'Humà, died without issue and the Catalan lineage ended.

Some sources consider that Fivaller's confrontation with the king was not so epic and that it is based more on legend than on reality, but it ended up becoming a symbol. Since 1844, his statue has presided over the facade of the town hall together with that of Jaume I.


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