Stop 5: The old chapel, today's Great Lecture Hall

The Casa de Convalescència had its own chapel, dedicated to Saint Paul. This had a height of 27 metres and was in the centre of the building, between the women's and men's dormitories. It was practically square in shape and was divided into three naves, separated from each other by columns with limestone shafts and composite capitals of Vilaseca stone. Halfway up, the chapel had long balconies, decorated with stone vases, from where patients who slept on the second floor could attend the services held there. The upper half of the chapel featured numerous stained-glass windows – in the walls and in the drum of the dome – with heraldic iconography: the fleur de lis, and the arms of Pau Ferran, of Barcelona's cathedral chapter, and of Catalonia. They were made by stained-glass manufacturers Granell and Company.

The chapel's altarpiece was in the Neo-Baroque style, made of stone and alabaster, with small Solomonic columns of coloured marble and the image of Saint George. The stone part, at least, seems to have been carried out by a certain Mr Bartolí in 1928. Domènech i Montaner intended to commission a painting for the main altar that could compete with the notable work by Catalan painter Antoni Viladomat (1678-1755) that hung in the chapel of the old Casa de Convalescència. Most probably, new instructions and a lack of money led to a more modest solution.

The chunky, Baroquish features of the decorations in relief – on the lintel of the door and the cornices – are reminiscent of decorations in other buildings, such as the headquarters of the Spanish national telephone company in Madrid, designed by Ignacio de Cárdenas Pastor between 1926 and 1929.  Like the other grand areas of the building, for the purposes of hygiene and decoration the chapel featured polychromatic ceramic tile wainscoting with plant motifs. The outside surface of the dome was covered in glazed ceramic conche tiles in yellow, black and red.