Plaça d’Orfila was, for nearly a thousand years, the main square for the independent town of Sant Andreu de Palomar, right up until this municipality was annexed to the city of Barcelona in 1897. Up to that point it had been known as Plaça de la Constitució or Plaça de l‘Església, but joining the city meant a name change. In 1907 it was rechristened with its current name, in honor of the Menorcan doctor Josep Orfila i Rotger.
As the old center of the town, the square houses the old town hall, now the district offices, and is presided over by the parish church of Sant Andreu de Palomar, a Neoclassical building begun in 1850 and finished in 1904. It sits on the site of an older, Gothic and Baroque temple, where previously there had been a 10th century Romanesque church.
Att the end of the 10th century the square became the scene of events that went down in the history books—it was sacked by the Muslims, led by the fearsome Almansor. It also had an important role to play in 1640, when it was the meeting point for Els Segadors (the Reapers) who revolted on May 22, taking as their symbol the Sant Crist dels Segadors from a chapel in the Sant Andreu church. The result of the revolution was the so-called Corpus de Sang (Bloody Corpus Christi), which marked the beginning of the Guerra dels Segadors (Reapers’ War).
Today, Plaça d’Orfila is the best place to get to know the history of Sant Andreu de Palomar and set off on a walk around the neighborhood.