The Kiss of Death

World-famous 1930 marble sculpture in Barcelona's Poblenou cemetery – a death angel kissing a young man.

"El petó de la mort" – "The Kiss of Death" – is the most celebrated sculpture in the Cementiri del Poblenou, one of Barcelona's oldest cemeteries. The marble relief depicts a winged angel of death pressing a final kiss to a young man's forehead. Created in 1930 by sculptor Jaume Barba, commissioned by the family of the young Josep Llaudet i Soler who died early, the work fuses Catalan symbolism with the aesthetic sensibility of the early 20th century. Today the sculpture draws pilgrims of art and cemetery enthusiasts from around the world, and is considered one of the most striking funerary monuments in Europe.