Located in the Ciutat Vella district, the parish church of Nostra Senyora del Carme is on the eastern corner of the block bounded by the streets of Obispo Laguarda, Sant Antoni Abat, de la Cendra and Riera Alta. It has two façades facing the first two streets and adjoins the neighbouring plots. The main access to the church is from Carrer del Bisbe Laguarda, while access to the parish centre is from Carrer de Sant Antoni Abat.
The parish complex is made up of the church, the Piarists' dwelling and the parish centre, three interconnected buildings which, despite belonging to different construction phases, follow the same design canons. The exteriors of the complex are finished in brick, both in terms of the walls and the openings. However, some architectural and ornamental details are finished in Montjuïc stone and glazed and moulded ceramics. The building is part of the Catalan Art Nouveau style, although it opens its doors to early modernism and, as some authors have pointed out, is inspired by the novelties of Sezessionism, German Expressionism and the Amsterdam School.
The church is the first building in the complex. Its brick façade reveals the interior structure of the church – at the foot of the church is the main door, which is the only element made entirely of stone. It consists of a semicircular arch surrounded by archivolts and flanked by two life-size angelic sculptures holding censers. On a brick arch in the sardinel rests a small gable containing a stone relief of two angels holding the coat of arms of the Carmelite order, consisting of a mountain with three six-pointed stars. This gable is continued on the rest of the façade with more pumped gables containing the openings of the side chapels of the church, consisting of triangular pumped windows decorated with moulded glazed ceramic tracery. Above the façade of the side chapels is the façade of the naves of the church, mediated by the presence of sloping buttresses that collect rainwater from the roof by means of exterior glazed ceramic gutters. Between buttresses there are tall windows with stained-glass windows and stone tracery. The façade is crowned by gables with portholes that adapt to the shape of the sloping roofs that cover each of the interior bays of the church. At the head of the church stands the bell tower – a tall, rectangular, chamfered construction with no openings. This bell tower is crowned by a quadrangular body with barbicans and arches that house the bells, under a gable, glazed ceramic roof.
The church is a basilica-shaped building with three naves with side chapels in four identical bays and a fifth, larger one occupied by the apse of the church. The central nave is covered by curvilinear vaults supported by cylindrical pillars, while the side aisles are subdivided by the presence of the wrought ironwork of the tribune that runs along them. All the walls, pillars and load-bearing elements of the interior are covered with two-colour sgraffito work based on continuous interlaced borders. The presbytery, crowned by a large parabolic arch, contains a gilded canopy with an image of the Virgin of Mount Carmel surrounded by mural paintings depicting a heavenly glory.
The home of the Piarists is located in the corner of the plot, just at the foot of the church, providing it with an original façade and an alternative southern access. This building, originally used as a school, has a symmetrical façade, with a three-storey central body and two four-storey side bodies. This façade is notable for the use of horizontal chicago-type windows with rounded brick mullions and lintels and diamond-pointed brick bands. This façade becomes a varied display of types of openings, among which we can highlight the twin arches, the mullioned windows, the balconies, the serlianas and the arched gallery. The central body features a stone sculpture of the Virgin of Mount Carmel enthroned before a polychrome ceramic frieze depicting two angels presenting the Virgin to a group of boys playing instruments (on the left) and a group of girls singing (on the right). Access to the school is through a large rounded stone arch with rounded brick archivolts, closed by a thick wrought-iron grille. This door leads to the main entrance hall of the building, where the stairs to the upper floors of both bodies start and which contains, at the back, the access to the church on the southern side.
The parish has a façade similar to the one on the ground floor, although it is part of a much later construction phase. Also finished in brick and with a diverse repertoire of openings, this façade is notable for the presence of a tall tower that rises above the roof line over the three floors of the building. The upper floors of this tower are adorned with brick reliefs in the form of crosses and lesenes and feature glass clocks. The top floor of the building is crowned by a cylindrical top floor perforated with portholes. The interior of this building contains a theatre with a stalls, an amphitheatre and tiered tribunes that preserves part of the original decoration based on austere gilded mouldings.
The plot of land that today houses the parish church of Nostra Senyora del Carme had housed, since the 15th century, the convent of Sant Maties of the Hieronymite nuns, founded by Brígida Terré. This large convent occupied a plot of land that extended as far as Carrer Riera Alta, and had a Gothic church with a single nave with side chapels and a polygonal apse. In 1835, after the Spanish confiscation, the convent church became the parish church of the neighbourhood. Badly damaged by the events of the Tragic Week of Barcelona in 1909, the medieval building had to be demolished and the opportunity was taken to redevelop the area, with the opening of the new street of Obispo Laguarda. In 1910, the architect Josep Maria Pericas i Morros was commissioned to design the project for a new church on the site under the advocate of the Verge del Carme, reminiscent of the neighbouring convent of Carme, which had disappeared in 1874. The construction of the new church, between 1911 and 1913, was completed with the decorative programme of Darius Vilàs i Fernández, and was followed by the raising of the bell tower between 1923 and 1924. In 1935, the parish centre was built, which included an Italian-style theatre (with stalls and amphitheatre) and is today the headquarters of the Teatre del Raval. Today, the body facing the corner is occupied by a Piarist community.
