The church, with a Latin cross floor plan, measures 32 x 16 metres across its transepts, and its main nave follows the Gothic structural system, featuring intersecting diagonal arches and a ribbed vault. Six chapels open along the lateral walls, serving as buttresses for the central nave. Just beyond the main doorway are, on one side, the baptistery, and on the other, the staircase leading up to the choir. At the crossing rises an octagonal dome supported by four flying arches. The presbytery is framed by a polygonal apse with an ambulatory surrounding the high altar; behind it lies the sacristy, with a staircase giving access to the bell tower and the pantheon-crypt.
The building displays a marked vertical projection, which is also evident in the main façade, featuring a porch with two cylindrical columns topped with capitals decorated with vegetal motifs, supporting a pointed arch of small voussoirs. Beside them stand two square columns crowned by pinnacles. The porch roof has a very steep pitch and is finished with a stone cornice adorned with three fleur-de-lis on each side and a cross in the centre above. Stone gargoyles, without special ornamentation, serve as water spouts. In the upper section of the main façade stands a two-storey belfry — the upper level with one opening and the lower with two.
The rear façade is also carefully executed and features a large portal with archivolts leading to the pantheon-crypt. At mid-height, five windows open to provide light to the sacristy, and above them, higher up, is a medium-sized rose window. The stained-glass windows, composed of leaded glass, are important decorative elements depicting religious scenes (Saint Faith, the Eucharist, and Baptism) and geometric motifs. The materials used in the church are rough-hewn stone and fired clay brick, except for the façades, which are built with well-cut ashlar blocks.
Built in 1877 to the design of the architect José Torres i Argulló, the church came to be known as the “Cathedral of the Upper Llobregat”. Its importance increased when it received the relics of Saint Aurelia of Nice. The promoter of Cal Pons — one of the most interesting industrial colonies in Catalonia from both an urbanistic and architectural point of view — was Josep Pons i Enrich, born in Manresa in 1811, a descendant of a local family linked to the silk industryduring the eighteenth century. From the mid-nineteenth century onwards, Josep Pons became a major cotton industrialist as well as a politician, founder of the Manresa Savings Bank, and promoter of the Manresa–Berga railway.
In 1875, Josep Pons purchased the lands of Cal Garrigal — which he later expanded through the acquisition of nearby farm properties — with the intention of building an industrial colony. The following year he obtained permission to use the waters of the River Llobregat for industrial purposes, and he subsequently had the weir, canal, turbine hall, and factory built, which was inaugurated in 1880. Alongside the industrial area, the workers’ housing also began to be constructed. These dwellings, built in two distinct stages (1875 and 1890), form Carrer d’Orient, the most emblematic street of the colony. The stewards and overseers lived in flats adjoining the factory, while the houses in Carrer de la Baixada and Plaça del Centre — where the shop, café, inn, bakery, and other services were located — were occupied by families connected to the colony’s service sector.
One of the most important buildings in Cal Pons, due to the functions it accommodated, was that constructed adjoining the church in 1893. This space included the school, convent of the nuns, girls’ residence, and theatre. However, the most emblematic buildings — owing to their spectacular character — were and still are others: the church itself and the owners’ towers. The church, inaugurated in 1887, was described by the press of the time as the “Cathedral of the Upper Llobregat”. The two towers, set within a garden, were built before 1885 (the old one) and in 1897 (the new one). The entire colony under construction was surrounded by a two-metre-high wall with three gates and two doors. The gatekeepers and the night watchman ensured that no worker entered or left the colony’s perimeter later than 8 or 9 p.m., depending on the time of year. This wall was demolished during the Spanish Civil War and was never rebuilt.
Since 2009, the church has housed the Interpretation Centre of the Church of the Pons Colony, which, through three museum spaces, explains the role played by the Church in the consolidation of the industrial colony system in Catalonia, from the perspective of both the workers and the colony owners. The Interpretation Centre employs modern interpretive systems and state-of-the-art audiovisual techniques, which successfully transport visitors into an evocative and immersive environment.
The museographic project focuses on three spaces within the religious building — the Chapel of Saint Lucy, the choir, and the crypt — and is integrated harmoniously with the church itself, fully compatible with its continuing religious function, which includes regular Mass services and liturgical acts that the Interpretation Centre always respects.
