Barcelona Travel Guide

Barcelona Zoo

2010-03-04T11:37:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Zoo: The dolphin shows are the big draw, but the decently sized zoo has plenty of other animals, all of whom look happy enough in reasonably spacious enclosures and the city's comfortable climate. Favourites include giant hippos, the prehistoric-looking rhino, sea lions, elephants, giraffes, lions and tigers. Child-friendly features include a farmyard zoo, pony rides, picnic areas and two excellent playgrounds. If all that walking is too much, there's a zoo 'train'.

Bear in mind that on hot days many of the animals in the Barcelona Zoo are sleeping and out of sight, and when the temperature drops below 13º many are kept inside.

Barcelona Zoo Address

Parc de la Ciutadella, Born
Area Born & St Pere
Transport Metro Barceloneta or Ciutadella-Vila Olímpica .
Telephone 93 225 67 80
Open Mar, Oct 10am-6pm daily. Apr-Sept 10am-7pm daily. Nov-Feb 10am-5pm daily.
Admission €15.40; €9.30 3-12s. Free under-3s.

Barcelona Transbordador Aeri

2010-03-04T11:30:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Transbordador Aeri: These rather battered cable cars do not appear to have been touched - except for the installation of lifts - since they were built for the 1929 Expo. Transbordador Aeri provide sky-high views over Barcelona on their grinding, squeaking path from the Sant Sebastià tower at the very far end of Passeig Joan de Borbó to the Jaume I tower in front of the World Trade Center; the final leg ends at the Miramar lookout point on Montjuïc. Go late to avoid the long queues.

Barcelona Transbordador Aeri Address

Torre de Sant Sebastià,
Barceloneta
Area Seafront
Transport Metro Barceloneta .
Telephone 93 441 48 20
Open Mid June-mid Sept 11am-8pm daily. Mid Sept-mid June 10.45am-7pm daily.
Tickets €9 single; €12.50 return; free under-6s.

Barcelona Tramvia Blau

2010-03-04T11:23:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Tramvia Blau : Barcelonins and tourists have been clanking 1,225m (4,000ft) up Avda Tibidabo in the 'blue trams' since 1902. In the winter months, when the tram only operates on weekends, a rather more prosaic bus (no.195) takes you up (or you can walk it in 15 minutes).

Barcelona Tramvia Blau Address

Avda Tibidabo (Plaça Kennedy) to Plaça Doctor Andreu
Area Beyond the Centre
Transport FGC Avda Tibidabo .
Telephone 93 318 70 74
Open Mid June-mid Sept 10am-8pm daily. Mid Sept-mid June 10am-6pm Sat. Frequency 20mins.
Tickets €2.30 single; €3.50 return. Admission €5; €2.50 reductions.

Barcelona Torre de Collserola

2010-03-04T11:15:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Torre de Collserola
Just five minutes' walk from the Sagrat Cor is its main rival and Barcelona's most visible landmark, Norman Foster's communications tower, built in 1992 to transmit images of the Olympics around the world. Those who don't suffer from vertigo attest to the wonderful views of Barcelona and the Mediterranean from the top.

Barcelona Torre de Collserola Address

Ctra de Vallvidrera al Tibidabo
Area Beyond the Centre
Transport FGC Peu Funicular then funicular .
Telephone 93 211 79 42
Open Apr-June, Sept 11am-2pm, 3.30-6pm Wed-Fri; 11am-2pm, 3.30-7pm Sat, Sun. July, Aug 11am-2pm, 3.30-7pm Wed-Fri; 11am-2pm, 3.30-8pm Sat, Sun. Oct-Mar 11am-2pm, 3.30-5pm Wed-Fri; 11am-2pm, 3.30-6pm Sat, Sun.
Admission €5; reductions €4; free under-4s.

Barcelona Tibidabo Funfair

2010-03-04T11:05:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Tibidabo Funfair: This hilltop fairground, dating from 1889, is investing millions in getting itself bang up to date, with the terrifying freefall Pendulum and a hot-air balloon style ride for smaller children. Adrenalin freaks are waiting for the rollercoaster currently under construction.

The many other attractions at Barcelona Tibidabo Funfair include a house of horrors, bumper cars and the emblematic Avió, the world's first popular flight simulator when it was built in 1928. Don't miss the antique mechanical puppets and contraptions at the Museu d'Autòmats, and there are hourly puppet shows at the Marionetàrium (from 1pm). At the weekends, at Barcelona Tibidabo Funfair there are circus parades at the end of the day and, in summer, correfocs (fire runs) and street theatre.

Barcelona Tibidabo Funfair Address

Plaça del Tibidabo,
Tibidabo
Area Beyond the Centre
Transport FGC Avda Tibidabo .
Telephone 93 211 79 42
Open Nov-mid Dec , mid Jan-Feb 11am-6pm Sat, Sun. Mar, Apr 11am-7pm Sat, Sun. May, June 11am-8pm Sat, Sun. July 11am-8pm Wed-Fri; 11am-11pm Sat; 11am-10pm Sun. Aug 11am-10pm Wed-Sun. 1st 2wks Sept 11am-8pm Wed-Fri; 11am-9pm Sat, Sun. 2nd 2wks Sept 11am-9pm Sat, Sun. Oct 11am-8pm Sat, Sun. Closed mid Dec-mid Jan.
Admission individual rides €11-€14. Unlimited rides €24; €19 reductions; €7-€14 children under 1.2m (3ft 11in); free children under 90cm (2ft 11in).

Barcelona Temple Romà d'Augusti

2010-03-04T11:01:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Temple Romà d'Augusti: Four stunning fluted Corinthian columns dating from the first century BC soar out of their podium in the most unlikely of places: a back patio of the Mountaineering Centre of Catalonia.

Part of the rear corner of the Barcelona Temple Romà d'Augusti devoted to the Roman emperor Augustus (who after his death was elevated to the pantheon), the columns were discovered and isolated from the structure of a medieval building in 1835.

The current layout of the Barcelona Temple Romà d'Augusti is actually a slight fudging of the original as the right-hand column resided separately in the Plaça del Rei until it was slotted next to the other three in 1956. Opening hours can vary, so, call ahead.

Barcelona Temple Romà d'Augusti: Address

C/Paradís 10
Area Barrí Gòtic
Transport Metro Jaume I .
Telephone 93 315 11 11
Open 10am-8pm Tue-Sat; 10am-3pm Sun.
Admission free.

Barcelona Telefèric de Montjuïc (cable car)

2010-03-04T10:39:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Telefèric de Montjuïc (cable car): The rebuilt system has eight-person cable cars that soar from the funicular up to the castle. In the summer months, the Picnic al Cel offers the chance to enjoy a vertiginous dining experience.

Barcelona Telefèric de Montjuïc (cable car) Address

Estació Funicular,
Avda Mirama
Area Montjuic & Poble Sec
Transport Metro Paral·lel then Funicular .
Telephone 93 318 70 74
Open Nov-Mar 10am-6pm daily. Apr-May, Oct 10am-7pm daily. June-Sept 10am-9pm daily.
Tickets €5.70 one way; €7.90 return; €4.50 one way reductions; €6 return reductions; free under-4s.

Barcelona Sinagoga Shlomo Ben Adret

2010-03-04T10:05:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Sinagoga Shlomo Ben Adret: The main synagogue of the Call until the pogrom in 1391, this tiny basement building lay abandoned for many years until its rediscovery and restoration in 1996. Once again a working synagogue, one of the two rooms is a place of worship with several interesting artefacts, the other holds the 14th-century dyeing vats used by the family that lived here until their status as crypto-Jews was discovered.

The façade of the Barcelona Sinagoga Shlomo Ben Adret building, slightly skewing the street, fulfils religious requirements by which the synagogue has to face Jerusalem; the two windows at knee height allow light to enter from that direction.

Barcelona Sinagoga Shlomo Ben Adret Address

C/Marlet 5
Area Barrí Gòtic
Transport Metro Jaume I or Liceu .
Telephone 93 317 07 90
Open 11am-2.30pm, 4-6.30pm Mon-Fri; 11am-2.30pm Sat, Sun.
Admission €2.

Barcelona Santa Maria del Mar

2010-03-04T09:57:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Santa Maria del Mar:
One of the most perfect surviving examples of the Catalan Gothic style, this graceful basilica stands out for its characteristic horizontal lines, plain surfaces, square buttresses and flat-topped octagonal towers. Its superb unity of style is down to the fact that it was built relatively quickly, with construction taking just 55 years (1329 to 1384). Named after Mary as patroness of sailors, it was built on the site of a small church known as Santa Maria d'Arenys (sand), for its position close to the sea.

In the broad, Barcelona Santa Maria del Mar, single-nave interior, two rows of perfectly proportioned columns soar up to fan vaults, creating an atmosphere of space around the light-flooded altar. There's also superb stained glass, especially the great 15th-century rose window above the main door. The original window fell down during an earthquake, killing 25 people. The incongruous modern window at the other end was a 1997 addition, belatedly celebrating the Olympics.

It's perhaps thanks to the group of anti-clerical anarchists who set the church ablaze for 11 days in 1936 that its superb features can be appreciated - without the wooden Baroque furniture that clutters so many Spanish churches, the simplicity of Barcelona Santa Maria del Mar lines can emerge. On Saturdays, the Barcelona Santa Maria del Mar basilica is in great demand for weddings, and it's a traditional venue for concerts, particularly the Requiem Mass at Easter and Handel's Messiah at Christmas.

Barcelona Santa Maria del Mar Address

Plaça de Santa Maria
Area Born & St Pere
Transport Metro Jaume I .
Telephone 93 310 23 90
Open 9am-1.30pm, 4.30-8pm Mon-Sat; 10am-1.30pm, 4.30-8pm Sun.
Admission free.

Barcelona Sant Pau del Camp

2010-03-04T09:45:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Sant Pau del Camp: The name, St Paul in the Field, reflects a time when the Raval was still countryside. In fact, this little Romanesque church is over 1,000 years old; the date carved on its most prestigious headstone - that of Count Guifré II Borrell, son of Wilfred 'the Hairy' and inheritor of all Barcelona and Girona - is AD 912.

The Barcelona Sant Pau del Camp church's impressive façade includes sculptures of fantastical flora and fauna along with human grotesques. The tiny cloister of Barcelona Sant Pau del Camp is another highlight with its extraordinary Visigoth capitals, triple-lobed arches and central fountain.

Barcelona Sant Pau del Camp Address
C/Sant Pau 101
Area Raval
Transport Metro Paral . lel.
Telephone 93 441 00 01
Open Visits 5-8pm Mon; 10.30am-1.30pm, 5-8pm Tue-Fri. Mass 8pm Sat; noon Sun.
Admission Visits €2; €1 reductions. Mass free.

Barcelona Sagrada Família

2010-03-04T08:50:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Sagrada Família:
Send Gaudí and the Sagrada Família to hell,' wrote Picasso, and while it is easy to see how some of the religious clichés of the building and the devotional fervour of its creator might annoy an angry young Cubist, Barcelona's iconic temple still manages to inspire delight in equal measure.

Gaudí dedicated more than 40 years to the Barcelona Sagrada Família project, the last 14 exclusively, and is buried beneath the nave. Many consider the crypt and the Nativity façade, which were completed in his lifetime, as the most beautiful elements of the Barcelona Sagrada Família church. The latter, facing C/Marina, looks at first glance as though some careless giant has poured candle wax over a Gothic cathedral, but closer inspection shows every protuberance to be an intricate sculpture of flora, fauna or human figure, combining to form an astonishingly moving stone tapestry depicting scenes from Christ's early years on the Barcelona's Sagrada Família.

At Barcelona's Sagrada Família, roviding a grim counterpoint to the excesses of the Nativity façade is the Passion façade on C/Sardenya, featuring bone-shaped columns and haunting, angular sculptures by Josep Maria Subirachs showing the 12 stations of the via crucis. The vast metal doors, set behind the sculpture of the flagellation of Jesus, are particularly arresting, covered in quotations from the Bible in various languages. The Glory façade of Barcelona's Sagrada Família on C/Mallorca, the final side to be built and the eventual main entrance to the temple, is currently shooting up behind the scaffolding and is devoted to the Resurrection, a mass of stone clouds and trumpets emblazoned with words from the Apostles' Creed.

The most amazing thing about Barcelona's Sagrada Família project, however, is that it is happening at all. Setbacks have ranged from 1930s anarchists blowing up Gaudí's detailed plans and models to lack of funds. Ongoing work is a matter of conjecture and controversy, with the finishing date expected to be somewhere within the region of 25-30 years. It was hoped the masterpiece of Sagrada Família would be completed in 2026 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Gaudí's death, although this now seems unlikely. This is, however, somewhat of an improvement on the prognosis in the 1900s, when construction was expected to last several hundred years; advanced computer technology is now being used to shape each intricately designed block of stone offsite to speed up the process. The latest tribulation to the architects is the municipal approval of plans to build the AVE bullet train tunnel just a few feet away from the temple's foundations.

An estimated five million tourists visit the Sagrada Família each year, more than two-and-a-half million of them paying the entrance fee. (A combination of ticket revenues and charitable donations funds the continued construction of the project and spending currently runs at about €1 million a month.) A ticket allows you to wander through the interior of the church, a marvellous forest of columns laid out in the style of the great Gothic cathedrals, with a multi-aisled central nave crossed by a transept. The central columns are fashioned of porphyry, perhaps the only natural element capable of supporting the church's projected great dome; destined to rise 170m (558ft), this will make the Sagrada Família once again the highest building in the city. A range of tours are available.

An admission ticket to the Sagrada Família also gives visitors access to the museum in the basement, offering insight into the history of the construction, original models for sculptural work and the chance to watch sculptors working at plaster-cast models through a large window.

Barcelona Sagrada Família Address

C/Mallorca 401
Area Eixample
Transport Metro Sagrada Família .
Telephone 93 207 30 31
Open Mar-Sept 9am-8pm daily. Oct-Feb 9am-6pm daily.
Admission €8; €5 reductions; €3 8-10 years; free under-8s. Lift to spires €2.

Barcelona Poble Espanyol

2010-03-04T08:16:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Poble Espanyol: Built for the 1929 Universal Exhibition and designed by the Modernista architect Puig i Cadafalch, this composite Spanish village is variously charming or kitsch depending on your taste, and features reproductions of traditional buildings and squares from every region in Spain.

The cylindrical towers at the entrance of Barcelona Poble Espanyol are copied from the walled city of Ávila and lead on to a typical Castilian main square from which visitors can explore a tiny whitewashed street from Arcos de la Frontera in Andalucía, then on to the 16th-century House of Chains from Toledo, and so on.

In Barcelona Poble Espanyol there are numerous bars and restaurants, a flamenco tablao and more than 60 shops selling Spanish crafts. Outside, street performers recreate bits of Catalan and Spanish folklore.

Barcelona Poble Espanyol Address

Avda Marquès de Comillas
Area Montjuic & Poble Sec
Transport Metro Espanya
Telephone 93 325 78 66
Open Village & restaurants 9am-8pm Mon; 9am-2am Tue-Thur; 9am-4am Fri; 9am-5am Sat; 9am-midnight Sun. Shops Dec-May 10am-6pm daily. June-Aug 10am-8pm daily. Sept-Nov 10am-7pm daily.
Admission €8; €5-€6 reductions; €20 family ticket; free under-4s. Combined ticket with MNAC €12.

Barcelona Plaza de Toros Monumental

2010-03-04T08:05:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Plaza de Toros Monumental
Bullfighting in Barcelona can be a sorry affair. The impressive Modernista Monumental bullring has seen better days, and anti-taurino protesters can often outnumber the spectators on quiet days. However, there are occasional corridas worth seeing; they take place on Sundays in summer.

Barcelona Plaza de Toros Monumental Address
Gran Via de les Corts Catalanes 749,
Eixample
Area Eixample
Transport Metro Monumental .
Telephone 93 215 95 70
Open Bullfights Apr-Sept 6-7pm Sun. Museum Apr-Sept 11am-2pm, 4-8pm Mon-Sat; 10.30am-1pm Sun.
Admission Bullfights €22-€120. Advance tickets available from Servi-Caixa. Museum €5; €4 reductions.

Barcelona Platja de l'Eixample

2010-03-04T07:52:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Platja de l'Eixample: In the summer, this leafy inner patio becomes the 'Eixample Beach', an oasis for the under-sevens. There's a knee-high wading pool, plenty of sand with buckets and spades provided, trees for shade and a water tower in the centre, along with outdoor showers, changing tents and toilets.

Barcelona Platja de l'Eixample Address

C/Roger de Llúria 56 interior,
Eixample
Area Eixample
Transport Metro Girona .
Telephone 637 40 28 66
Open End June-July 10am-8pm Mon-Sat; 10am-3pm Sun. Aug 10am-8pm Mon-Fri; 10am-3pm Sat, Sun.
Admission €1.40; free under-1s.

Barcelona Pavellons de la Finca Güell

2010-03-04T07:45:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Pavellons de la Finca Güell
Industrial textile businessman Eusebi Güell bought what is now Palau Reial in 1882 as a summer home, contracting Gaudí to remodel the entrance lodges and gardens for the estate. In 1883, they began to build what would be one of Gaudí's first projects in Barcelona for the Güell family.

The huge gardens were accessed by three entrances, of which only two remain today. The Porta del Drac (Dragon's Gate) is the most impressive and used to be the private entrance for the Güell family. This entrance was connected to the Güell home in Barcelona by a private, walled road exclusively for their use when the family travelled between the city and the country. Nowadays, the gatehouses belong to the the University of Barcelona. Interestingly, the family of Güell's original groundsman still lives in the same small house on the site.

The Barcelona Pavellons de la Finca Güell must be visited with a guide, and tours are offered in Spanish and English. Really though, it isn't much of a tour, lasting for about 25 minutes with a look at nothing more than the gate and the stables. This was the first project on which Gaudí used his signature 'trencadís' or mosaic motif.

Barcelona Pavellons de la Finca Güell Address

Avda Pedralbes 15
Area Gràcia
Transport Metro Palau Reial .
Telephone 93 317 76 52
Open 10.50am-2pm Mon, Fri-Sun. Tours in English 10.15am, 12.15pm.
Admission €5; €2.50 reductions.

Barcelona Pavelló Mies van der Rohe

2010-03-04T07:34:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Pavelló Mies van der Rohe
Mies van der Rohe built the Pavelló Alemany (German Pavilion) for the 1929 Universal Exhibition not as a gallery but as a simple reception space, sparsely furnished by his trademark 'Barcelona Chair'.

The pavilion of the Barcelona Pavelló Mies van der Rohe was a founding monument of modern rationalist architecture, with its flowing floor plan and a revolutionary use of materials. Though the original pavilion of the Barcelona Pavelló Mies van der Rohe was demolished after the exhibition, a fine replica was built on the same site in 1986, the simplicity of its design setting off the warm tones of the marble and expressive Georg Kolbe sculpture in the pond.

Barcelona Pavelló Mies van der Rohe Address

Avda Marquès de Comillas
Area Montjuic & Poble Sec
Transport Metro Espanya.
Telephone 93 423 40 16
Open 10am-8pm daily.
Admission €4; €2 reductions; free under-18s.

Barcelona Park Güell

2010-03-04T07:12:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Park Güell: Gaudí's brief was to emulate the English garden cities so admired by his patron Eusebi Güell (which is the reason for the unusual spelling of 'park'): to lay out a self-contained suburb for the wealthy, but also to design the public areas.

The original plan for Barcelona Park Güell was for the plots to be sold off and the properties themselves subsequently designed by other architects. The idea never took off - perhaps because it was too far from the city, perhaps because it was too radical - and the Güell family donated the park to the city in 1922.

Barcelona's Park Güell is a real fairy-tale place; the fantastical exuberance of Gaudí's imagination is breathtaking. The visitor was previously welcomed by two life-sized mechanical gazelles - a typically bizarre religious reference by Gaudí to medieval Hebrew love poetry - although these were unfortunately destroyed in the Civil War.

The two gatehouses of Barcelona Park Güell that do still remain were based on designs the architect made earlier for the opera Hänsel and Gretel, one of them featuring a red and white mushroom for a roof. From here, walk up a splendid staircase flanked by multicoloured battlements, past the iconic mosaic lizard sculpture, to what would have been the main marketplace. Here, 100 palm-shaped pillars hold up a roof, reminiscent of the hypostyle hall at Luxor.

On top of this structure in Barcelona Park Güell is the esplanade, a circular concourse surrounded by undulating benches in the form of a sea-serpent decorated with shattered tiles - a technique called 'trencadís', which was actually perfected by Gaudí's overshadowed but talented assistant Josep Maria Jujol.

The Barcelona's Park Güell itself, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is magical, with twisted stone columns supporting curving colonnades or merging with the natural structure of the hillside. The park's peak is marked by a large cross and offers an amazing panorama of Barcelona and the sea beyond. Gaudí lived for a time in one of the two houses built on the site (which was, in fact, designed by his student Berenguer). It has since become the Casa-Museu Gaudí; guided tours, of which some are in English, are available.

Barcelona Park Güell Address
C/Olot
Area Gràcia
Transport Metro Lesseps/bus 24, 25 .
Telephone 93 219 38 11
Open Park 10am-sunset daily. Museum Apr-Sept 10am-7.45pm daily. Oct-Mar 10am-5.45pm daily.
Admission Park free. Museum €4; €3 reductions; free under-9s.

Barcelona Parc Joan Miró (Parc de l'Escorxador)

2010-03-04T06:42:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Parc Joan Miró (Parc de l'Escorxador): Covering an area the size of four city blocks, the old slaughterhouse (escorxador) was demolished in 1979 toprovide much-needed parkland, although there's little greenery. The rows of palms and pines in the Barcelona Parc Joan Miró (Parc de l'Escorxador) are dwarfed by Miró's sculpture Dona i Ocell (Woman and Bird) getting its feet wet in a rather grim cement lake; there's a good playground for small children.

Barcelona Parc Joan Miró (Parc de l'Escorxador) Address

C/Tarragona
Area Eixample
Transport Metro Espanya .
Open 10am-sunset daily.

Barcelona Parc del Laberint

2010-03-04T06:32:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Parc del Laberint: In 1791, the Desvalls family, owners of this marvellously leafy estate, hired Italian architect Domenico Bagutti to design scenic gardens set around a cypress maze, with a romantic stream and a waterfall.

The mansion from Barcelona Parc del Laberint may be gone (replaced with a 19th-century Arabic-influenced building), but the gardens are remarkably intact, shaded in the summer by oaks, laurels and an ancient sequoia. Best of all, the maze of the Barcelona Parc del Laberint, an ingenious puzzle that intrigues those brave enough to try it, is also still in use. Nearby in the Barcelona Parc del Laberint stone tables provide a handy picnic site. On paying days, last entry is one hour before sunset.

Address

C/Germans Desvalls,
Passeig Vall d'Hebron
Area Beyond the Centre
Transport Metro Mundet .
Open 10am-sunset daily.
Admission €2.05; €1.30 reductions; free under-5s, over-65s. Free Wed, Sun.

Barcelona Parc de l'Estació del Nord

2010-03-04T06:17:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Parc de l'Estació del Nord: Otherwise known as Parc Sol i Ombra (meaning 'Sun and Shadow'), this small but well-used park is perked up by the three pieces of landscape art in glazed blue and white ceramic by New York sculptor Beverly Pepper. Along with a pair of incongruous white stone entrance walls, Espiral Arbrat (Tree Spiral) is a spiral bench set under the cool shade of lime-flower trees, while Cel Caigut (Fallen Sky) is a 7m-high (23ft) ridge rising from the grass. The colourful tilework recalls Gaudí's trencadís smashed-tile technique in Barcelona Parc de l'Estació del Nord.

Barcelona Parc de l'Estació del Nord Address

C/Nàpols
Area Eixample
Transport Metro Arc de Triomf .
Open 10am-sunset daily.
Admission free.

Barcelona Parc de l'Espanya Industrial

2010-03-04T05:41:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Parc de l'Espanya Industrial: In the 1970s, the owners of the old textile factory announced their intention to use the land to build blocks of apartments. The neighbourhood's residents, though, put their collective foot down and insisted on a park, which was eventually laid out in 1985.

The result is Barcelona Parc de l'Espanya Industrial, a puzzling space, designed by Basque Luis Peña Ganchegui, with ten watchtowers overlooking a boating lake with a statue of Neptune in the middle, flanked by a stretch of mud used mainly by dog walkers, but little in the way of greenery. By the entrance children can climb over Andrés Nagel's Drac, a massive and sinister black dragon sculpture.

Barcelona Parc de l'Espanya Industrial Address
Passeig de Antoni
Area Beyond the Centre
Transport Metro Sants-Estació .
Open 10am-sunset daily.
Admission free

Barcelona Parc de la Creueta del Coll

2010-03-04T05:28:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Parc de la Creueta del Coll Created from a quarry in 1987 by Josep Martorell and David Mackay, the team that went on to design the Vila Olímpica, this park boasts a sizeable swimming pool complete with a 'desert island' and a sculpture by Eduardo Chillida: a 50-ton lump of curly granite suspended on cables, called In Praise of Water.

Barcelona Parc de la Creueta del Coll Address

C/Mare de Déu del Coll
Area Gràcia
Transport Metro Penitents .
Telephone (no phone)
Open 10am-sunset daily.
Admission free.

Barcelona Palau de la Virreina

2010-03-04T04:10:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Palau de la Virreina: This classical palace, with Baroque features, takes its name from the widow of an unpopular viceroy of Peru, who commissioned it and lived in it after its completion in the 1770s. The Virreina houses the city cultural department, has information on events and shows, and also strong programming in its two gallery spaces.

On the first floor of the Barcelona Palau de la Virreina, Espai 2 is devoted to exhibitions of contemporary art, while the free downstairs gallery, named after local photographer Xavier Miserachs, is focused on historical and contemporary photography and also hosts Barcelona's most prestigious annual photo competition: the FotoMercè, held during the Mercè in September.

Barcelona Palau de la Virreina Address

La Rambla 99
Area Raval
Transport Metro Liceu .
Telephone 93 316 10 00
Open 11am-2pm, 4-8.30pm Tue-Fri; 11am-8.30pm Sat; 11am-3pm Sun.
Admission Espai 2 €4.10; €3.08 reductions; free under-16s. Espai Xavier Miserachs free.

Barcelona Palau de la Música Catalana

2010-03-04T03:06:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Palau de la Música Catalana: Commissioned by the nationalistic Orfeó Català choral society, this jawdropping concert hall was intended as a paean to the Catalan renaixença and a showcase for the most outstanding Modernista workmanship available. Domènech i Montaner's façade is a frenzy of colour and detail, including a large allegorical mosaic representing the members of the Orfeó Català, and floral tiled columns topped with the busts of Bach, Beethoven and Palestrina on the main façade and Wagner on the side. Inside, a great deal of money has been spent improving the acoustics, but visitors don't really come here to feast their ears: the eyes have it.

Decoration erupts everywhere in the Barcelona Palau de la Música Catalana. The ceiling is an inverted bell of stained glass depicting the sun bursting out of a blue sky; 18 half-mosaic, half-relief Muses appear out of the back of the stage; winged horses fly over the upper balcony. The carved arch over the stage of the Barcelona Palau de la Música Catalana represents folk and classical music: the left side has Catalan composer and conductor Anselm Clavé sitting over young girls singing 'Flors de Maig', a traditional Catalan song, while the right has Wagnerian Valkyries riding over a bust of Beethoven.

By the 1980s, the Barcelona Palau de la Música Catalana was bursting under the pressure of the musical activity going on inside it, and a church next door was demolished to make space for Òscar Tusquet's extension, a project which, combined with the extensive renovations to the old building, spanned over 20 years. Rather than try to compete with the existing façadeof the Barcelona Palau de la Música Catalana, the new part has subtler, organic motifs in ochre brick - particularly striking are the frilled mushroom gills on the underside of the circular tower.

Guided tours in the Barcelona Palau de la Música Catalana are available in English every hour and start with a short film of the Palau's history. Be sure to ask questions: the guides are very knowledgeable, but unless prompted, they tend to concentrate mainly on the triumphs of the renovation.

Barcelona Palau de la Música Catalana Address

C/Sant Francesc de Paula 2
Area Born & St Pere
Transport Metro Urquinaona .
Telephone 93 295 72 00
Open Box office 10am-9pm Mon-Sat. Guided tours Sept-July 10am-3.30pm daily. Aug 10am-6pm.
Admission €10; €9 reductions.

Barcelona Palau de la Generalitat

2010-03-04T02:32:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Palau de la Generalitat: Like the Ajuntament, the Palau de la Generalitat has a Gothic side entrance that opens out on to C/Bisbe with a beautiful relief of St George (Sant Jordi), patron saint of Catalonia, made by Pere Johan in 1418. Inside the building, the finest features are the first-floor Pati de Tarongers (Orange Tree Patio), which was to become the model for many patios in Barcelona, and the magnificent chapel of Sant Jordi of 1432-34, the masterpiece of Catalan architect Marc Safont.

The Barcelona Palau de la Generalitat is traditionally open to the public on Sant Jordi (St George's Day, 23 April), when its patios are spectacularly decorated with red roses, but queues are long. It normally also opens on 11 September (Catalan National Day) and 24 September (La Mercè). The guided tours for Barcelona Palau de la Generalitat are generally in Spanish or Catalan, so it's best to call ahead for an English-speaking guide.

Barcelona Palau de la Generalitat Address
Plaça Sant Jaume
Transport Metro Jaume I or Liceu .
Telephone 93 402 46 17
Open 10am-7pm Tue-Sat; 10am-3pm Sun.
Admission free. Guided tours every 30-40mins approx 10.30am-1pm, 2nd & 4th Sun of mth; 9.30am-1pm Fri-Sun by appt.

Nou Camp - FC Barcelona

2010-03-03T16:01:00.000-08:00

Nou Camp - FC Barcelona
Nou Camp, where FC Barcelona has played since 1957, is one of football's great stadiums, a vast cauldron of a ground that holds 98,000 spectators. That's a lot of noise when the team is doing well, and an awful lot of silence when it isn't. If you can't get there on match day (and you can usually pick up tickets if you try) but love the team, it's worth visiting the club museum.

The excellent guided tour of the Nou Camp - FC Barcelona stadium takes you through the players' tunnel to the dugouts and then, via the away team's changing room, on to the President's box, where there is a replica of the European Cup, which the team won at Wembley in 1992 and again in Paris in 2006. The club Nou Camp - FC Barcelona museum commemorates those glory years, making much of the days when the likes of Kubala, Cruyff, Maradona, Koeman and Lineker trod the hallowed turf, with pictures, video clips and souvenirs spanning the century that has passed since the Swiss business executive Johan Gamper and the Englishman Arthur Witty first founded the club. Last tour begins an hour before closing time.

Nou Camp - FC Barcelona Address
Avda Arístides Maillol, access 9,
Les Corts
Area Beyond the Centre
Transport Metro Collblanc, Les Corts or Maria Cristina .
Telephone 93 496 36 00/08
Open Apr-mid Oct 10am-8pm Mon-Sat; 10am-2.30pm Sun. Mid Oct-Mar 10am-6.30pm Mon-Sat; 10am-2.30pm Sun.
Admission €8.50; €6.80 reductions; free under-5s. Guided tour €13; €10.40 reductions.

Barcelona Monument a Colom

2010-03-03T15:36:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Monument a Colom
Inspired by Nelson's Column, and complete with eight majestic lions, the Christopher Columbus monument was designed for the Universal Exhibition of 1888. Positioned at the base of La Rambla, the monument allegedly marks the spot where Columbus docked in 1493 after his discovery of the Americas, and the carvings illustrate key moments in his voyages. Columbus's white hair comes courtesy of the city pigeons so take appropriate cover if you decide to take the tiny lift up inside the column to the vertiginous viewing platform.

Barcelona Monument a Colom Address

Plaça Portal de la Pau
Area Barrí Gòtic
Transport Metro Drassanes .
Telephone 93 302 52 24
Open June-Sept 9am-8.30pm daily. Oct-May 9am-8pm daily.
Admission €2.50; €1.50 reductions; free under-4s.

Barcelona L'Aquàrium

2010-03-03T15:21:00.000-08:00

Barcelona L'Aquàrium:
The main draw here is the Oceanari, a giant shark-infested tank traversed via a glass tunnel on a slow-moving conveyor belt, but naturally other aquaria house shoals of kaleidoscopic fish where kids can play 'hunt Nemo'. The upstairs section is devoted to children: for pre-schoolers, Explora! has 50 knobs-and-whistles style activities, such as turning a crank to see how ducks' feet move underwater or climbing inside a mini-submarine, though much of the equipment is looking a bit the worse for wear. Older children should head to Planet Aqua - an extraordinary, split-level circular space with Humboldt penguins.

Barcelona L'Aquàrium Address

Moll d'Espanya,
Port Vell
Area Seafront
Transport Metro Barceloneta or Drassanes .
Telephone 93 221 74 74
Open Oct-May 9.30am-9pm Mon-Fri; 9.30am-9.30pm Sat, Sun. June, Sept 9.30am-9.30pm daily. July, Aug 9.30am-11pm daily.
Admission €16.50; €11-€13 reductions; free under-4s.

Barcelona Jardins Mossèn Costa i Llobera

2010-03-03T15:06:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Jardins Mossèn Costa i Llobera
The port side of Montjuïc is protected from the cold north wind, creating a microclimate two degrees centigrade warmer than the rest of the city, which is perfect for 800 species of the world's cacti. This extraordinary collection has been closed to the public for some time while funding for essential maintenance is sought.

Barcelona Jardins Mossèn Costa i Llobera Address
Ctra de Miramar 1
Area Montjuic & Poble Sec
Transport Metro Paral·lel, then funicular .
Open 10am-sunset daily.
Admission free.

Barcelona Jardins de Joan Brossa

2010-03-03T14:36:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Jardins de Joan Brossa
Set in 5.2 hectares of the former fairground, Montjuïc's latest park is part-forest, with 40 species of tree, and part-urban playground. As well as a climbing frame, in Barcelona Jardins de Joan Brossaare there are various wooden creations designed for children, allowing them to play tunes and pump water.

Barcelona Jardins de Joan Brossa Address
Plaça Dante
Area Montjuic & Poble Sec
Transport Metro Paral·lel, then funicular .
Telephone 93 205 99 12
Jardins de Joan Brossa website
Open Dec-Feb 10am-6pm daily; Mar, Nov 10am-7pm daily; Apr, Oct 10am-8pm daily; May-Sept 10am-9pm daily.
Admission free.

Barcelona Jardí Botànic

2010-03-03T13:59:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Jardí Botànic:
After the original 1930s botanical garden was disturbed by the construction for the Olympics, the only solution was to build an entirely new replacement. This opened in 1999, housing plants from seven global regions with a climate similar to that of the Western Mediterranean.

Everything about the futuristic design of the Barcelona Jardí Botànic, from the angular concrete pathways to the raw sheet steel banking (and even the design of the bins), is the complete antithesis of the more naturalistic, Gertrude Jekyll-inspired gardens of England. Barcelona Jardí Botànic is meticulously kept, with all plants being tagged in Latin, Catalan, Spanish and English along with their date of planting, and has the added advantage of wonderful views across the city. There is a small space housing occasional temporary exhibitions and useful, free audio guides to lead visitors through the gardens.

Barcelona Jardí Botànic Address
C/Doctor Font i Quer
Area Montjuic & Poble Sec
Transport Metro Espanya /bus 50, 55, 61.
Telephone 93 426 49 35
Open Jan, Nov-Dec 10am-5pm daily. Feb-Mar, Oct 10am-6pm daily. Apr-May , Sept 10am-7pm daily. June-Aug 10am-8pm daily.
Admission €3.50; €1.70 reductions; free under-16s. Free last Sun of mth.

Barcelona Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau

2010-03-03T13:33:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau:
When part of the roof of the gynaecology department collapsed in 2004, it was clear that restoration work was needed on the century-old Modernista 'garden city' hospital. By spring 2009 the last of the departments will have been transferred to the modern Nou Sant Pau building to the north of the grounds and the old complex will cease to be a functioning hospital although there are tentative plans to turn part of it into a museum of Modernisme.

Scaffolding and builders will be on the grounds for the next decade or so but the renovations will be gradual and the complex still open to visitors who come to admire Domènech i Montaner's masterpiece. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Barcelona Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau is a collection of 20 pavilions abundantly adorned with the colourful Byzantine, Gothic and Moorish flourishes that characterise the architect's style and set in peaceful gardens that spread over nine blocks in the north-east corner of the Eixample. It is set at a 45º angle from the rest of Ildefons Cerdà's grid system, so that it catches more sun: Domènech i Montaner built the hospital very much with its patients in mind, convinced that aesthetic harmony and pleasant surroundings were good for the health.

The public enjoy free access to the grounds, and guided tours (€5; €2.50 reductions) in English are held daily at 10.15am and 12.15pm.

Barcelona Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau Address
C/Sant Antoni María Claret 167
Area Eixample
Transport Metro Hospital de Sant Pau .
Telephone 93 291 90 00

Barcelona Funicular de Tibidabo

2010-03-03T13:21:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Funicular de Tibidabo:
This art deco vehicle offers occasional glimpses of the city below as it winds through the pine forests up to the summit. The service of Barcelona Funicular de Tibidabo has been operating since 1901, but only according to a complicated timetable. If it's not running, take the FGC line from Plaça de Catalunya to Peu del Funicular, get the funicular up to Vallvidrera Superior, and then catch the 111 bus to Tibidabo (a process not half as complicated as it sounds). Alternatively, it's nearly an hour's (mostly pleasant) hike up from Plaça Doctor Andreu for those who are feeling energetic.

Barcelona Funicular de Tibidabo Address

Plaça Doctor Andreu to Plaça Tibidabo
Area Beyond the Centre
Transport FGC Avda Tibidabo then Tramvia Blau .
Telephone 93 211 79 42
Open As funfair, but starting 30mins earlier.
Tickets Single €2. Return €3. Free under-3s.

Barcelona Fundació Foto Colectània

2010-03-03T13:08:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Fundació Foto Colectània:
This private foundation, Fundació Foto Colectània, is dedicated to the promotion of the photography of major Spanish and Portuguese photographers from the 1950s to the present. Barcelona Fundació Foto Colectània also has an extensive library of Spanish and Portuguese photography books.

Barcelona Fundació Foto Colectània Address

C/Julián Romea 6, D2
Area Beyond the Centre
Transport FGC Gràcia .
Telephone 93 217 16 26
Open 11am-2pm, 5-8.30pm Mon-Sat. Closed Sat in Aug.
Admission free-€3; depending on exhibition.

Barcelona Fundació Antoni Tàpies

2010-03-03T12:56:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Fundació Antoni Tàpies:
Antoni Tàpies exploded on to the art scene in the 1950s when he began to incorporate waste paper, mud and rags into his paintings, eventually moving on to whole pieces of furniture, running water and girders. Today, he is Barcelona's most celebrated living artist and his trademark scribbled and paint-daubed pieces are sought after for everything from wine bottle labels to theatre posters.

The artist set up the Tàpies Foundation in this, the former Montaner i Simon publishing house, in 1984, dedicating it to the study and appreciation of contemporary art. In a typically contentious act, Tàpies crowned the building with a glorious tangle of aluminium piping and ragged metal netting (Núvol i Cadira, or Cloud and Chair). The building of the Barcelona Fundació Antoni Tàpies remains one of the earliest examples of Modernisme to combine exposed brick and iron and is now a cultural centre and museum dedicated to the work and life of the man himself, with exhibitions, symposiums, lectures and films.

Address

C/Aragó 255
Area Eixample
Transport Metro Passeig de Gràcia.
Telephone 93 487 03 15
Open 10am-8pm Tue-Sun.
Admission €6; €4 reductions; free under-16s.

Barcelona Font Màgica de Montjuïc

2010-03-03T12:34:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Font Màgica de Montjuïc: Still using its original plumbing, the 'magic fountain' works its wonders with 3,600 pieces of tubing and more than 4,500 light bulbs. Summer evenings after nightfall see the multiple founts swell and dance to anything from the 1812 Overture to Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé's Barcelona, showing off its kaleidoscope of pastel colours. In July 2008, a new piece was inaugurated with the Barcelona Font Màgica de Montjuïc fountain choreographed to film soundtracks including Blade Runner, Gladiator and Lord of the Rings.

Barcelona Font Màgica de Montjuïc Address
Plaça Carles Buïgas 1
Area Montjuic & Poble Sec
Transport Metro Espanya .
Telephone 93 316 10 00
Open 9am-5pm daily. Shows (every 30 mins) May-Sept 9.30-11pm Thur-Sun. Oct-Apr 7-8.30pm Fri, Sat.
Admission free.

Centre Civic Pati d'en Llimona

2010-03-03T12:19:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Centre Civic Pati d'en Llimona: From the street, peer through the glass paving slabs and windows to see the excavated foundations of a round defence tower that dates from the earliest Roman settlement, along with the remains of a Roman bath and house that stood against one of the gates of the city wall.

In the 15th century, a luxury town villa was built on the site; the courtyard still contains various capitals with carved faces from this period (along with a sculpture of two female nudes by local hairdressing king, Lluis Llongueras). The Centre Civic Pati d'en Llimona activities include photography exhibitions, workshops, theatre shows and poetry readings.

Barcelona Centre Civic Pati d'en Llimona Address

C/Regomir 3
Area Barrí Gòtic
Transport Metro Jaume I .
Telephone 93 268 47 00
Open Exhibitions 9am-9pm Mon-Fri; 10am-2pm, 4-8pm Sat. Closed Aug.
Admission free.

Barcelona Cementiri Sud-Oest

2010-03-03T08:12:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Cementiri Sud-Oest: Designed by Leandro Albareda in 1880, this enormous necropolis, sits at the side of the motorway out of town, and is a daily reminder to commuters of their own mortality. The dead were originally placing them in four sections: one for Catholics, one for Protestants, one for non-Christians and a fourth for aborted foetuses. Barcelona Cementiri Sud-Oest now stretches over the south-west corner of the mountain, with family tombs stacked five or six storeys high.

Many, especially those belonging to the gypsy community, are a riot of colour and flowers. The Fossar de la Pedrera memorial park remembers those fallen from the International Brigades and the Catalan martyrs from the Civil War. There is also a Holocaust memorial and a mausoleum to the former president of the Generalitat Lluís Companys.

The cemetery Barcelona Cementiri Sud-Oest is much visited, in particular on All Saints' Day, when the roads are clogged solid with cars. In 2007, modernisation and expansion of the facilities started in order to provide more parking space, flower stalls, a new entrance and, eventually, a new home for the city's collection of funeral carriages at the Barcelona Cementiri Sud-Oest.

Barcelona Cementiri Sud-Oest Address

C/Mare de Déu de Port 54-58
Area Montjuic & Poble Sec
Transport Bus 38 .
Telephone 93 223 16 83
Open 9am-5pm daily.
Admission free.

CCCB (Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona)

2010-03-03T08:05:00.000-08:00

CCCB (Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona): Spain's largest cultural centre was opened in 1994 at the Casa de la Caritat, a former almshouse, built in 1802 on the site of a medieval monastery. At the CCCB (Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona), the massive façade and part of the courtyard remain from the original building; the rest was rebuilt in dramatic contrast, all tilting glass and steel, by architects Piñón and Viaplana, known for the Maremàgnum shopping centre. The CCCB (Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona) exhibitions can lean toward heavy-handed didacticism, but there are occasional gems.

CCCB (Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona) address

C/Montalegre 5
Area Barrí Gòtic
Transport Metro Catalunya.
Telephone 93 306 41 00
Open 11am-8pm Tue, Wed, Fri-Sun; 11am-10pm Thur.
Admission 1 exhibition €4.50; €3.40 reductions & Wed. 2 exhibitions €6; €5.60 reductions & Wed. Free under-16s. Free 1st Wed of mth; 8-10pm Thur.

Barcelona Catedral

2010-03-03T07:46:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Catedral: Construction on Barcelona's Gothic cathedral began in 1298. However, thanks to civil wars and plagues, construction continued at a pace that makes the Sagrada Família project look snappy: although the architects remained faithful to the vertical Nordic lines of the 15th-century plans, the façade and central spire were not finished until 1913. Indeed, the façcade continues to cause problems: although it's one of the newest parts of the building, it's crumbling, and roughly a third of it is being taken down and painstakingly rebuilt with the same Montserrat stone that was used for the original. For the time being, the building is shrouded in scaffolding, plastic and signs asking visitors to 'Sponsor a Stone'.

Inside, the Barcelona cathedral is a cavernous and slightly forbidding place, but many paintings, sculptures and an intricately carved central choir (built in the 1390s) all shine through the gloom. The cathedral is dedicated to the city's patron saint Eulàlia, an outspoken 13-year-old martyred by the Romans in AD 303; her remains lie in the dramatically lit crypt, in an alabaster tomb carved with torture scenes from her martyrdom (being rolled in a nail-filled barrel down what is today the Baixada de Santa Eulàlia, for instance). To one side, there's a lift to the roof; take it for a magnificent view of the Old City.

The glorious light-filled cloister of the Barcelona Cathedral is famous for its 13 fierce geese - one for each year of Eulàlia's life - and half-erased floor engravings, detailing which guild paid for which side chapel: scissors for the tailors, shoes for the cobblers and so on. The cathedral museum, housed is in the 17th-century chapterhouse, includes paintings and sculptures by Gothic masters Jaume Huguet, Bernat Martorell and Bartolomé Bermejo.

A combined ticket (visita especial) has a timetable intended to keep tourists and worshippers from bothering one another. From 1-4.30pm, the entry fee is obligatory; howeber, ticket-holders have the run of the cloister, church, choir and lift, and can enter some chapels and take photos (normally prohibited).

Address
Pla de la Seu
Area Barrí Gòtic
Transport Metro Jaume I .
Telephone 93 342 82 60
Open Combined ticket 1pm-5pm Mon-Sat; 2-4.45pm Sun. Without combined ticket ( Church ) 8am-12.45pm, 5.15-7pm Mon-Fri; 8am-12.45pm, 5.15-6pm Sat; 8am-12.45pm, 5.15-6pm Sun. ( Cloister ) 9am-12.30pm, 5-7pm daily. ( Museum ) 10am-12.30pm, 5.15-7pm daily.
Admission Combined ticket €5. Church & cloister free. Museum €2. Lift to roof €2.50. Choir €2.20.

Barcelona Casa Batlló

2010-03-03T07:33:00.000-08:00

Casa Batlló: In one of the most extreme architectural makeovers ever seen, Gaudí and his long-time collaborator Josep Maria Jujol took an ordinary apartment block and remodelled it inside and out for textile tycoon Josep Batlló between 1902 and 1906. The result was Casa Batlló, one of the most impressive and admired of all Gaudí's creations, although opinions differ on what the building's remarkable façade represents, particularly its polychrome shimmering walls, its sinister skeletal balconies and its humpbacked scaly roof. Some say it's the spirit of carnival, others a Costa Brava cove. However, the most popular theory, which takes into account the architect's deeply patriotic feelings, is that Casa Batlló depicts Sant Jordi and the dragon: the idea being that the cross on top is the knight's lance, the roof is the back of the beast, and the balconies below are the skulls and bones of its hapless victims.

The chance to explore the interior of Casa Batlló offers the best opportunity of understanding how Gaudí, sometimes considered the lord of the bombastic and overblown, was really the master of tiny details, from the ingenious ventilation in the doors to the amazing natural light reflecting off the azure walls of the inner courtyard and the way the brass window handles are curved so as to fit precisely the shape of a hand. An apartment within is open to the public and access has been granted to the attic and roof terrace: the whitewashed arched rooms of the top floor, originally used for laundering and hanging clothes, are among the master's most atmospheric spaces.

Address

Passeig de Gràcia 43
Area Eixample
Transport Metro Passeig de Gràcia.
Telephone 93 216 03 06
Open 9am-8pm daily.
Admission €17.50; €14 reductions; free under-7s.

Barcelona Casa Àsia

2010-03-03T06:36:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Casa Àsia: This cultural centre for Asia and the Asian Pacific is housed in the jaw-droppingly ornate Palau Baró de Quadras, designed by Puig i Cadafalch. If you can tear your eyes away from the lavish carvings and mosaics, there are a variety of excellent temporary exhibits covering anything from modern Chinese abstract art to Iranian graphics.

The underlying function of this organisation, however, is the promotion of Asian culture in Barcelona with language courses, international conferences and cinema cycles (often subtitled in English). Barcelona Casa Àsia also features an oriental café on the ground floor and an excellent multimedia library on the fourth floor, which allows visitors to hire CDs, DVDs and books on presentation of their passport or ID card.

Address

Avda Diagonal 373
Area Eixample
Transport Metro Diagonal .
Telephone 93 238 73 37
Open Exhibitions 10am-8pm Mon-Sat; 10am-2pm Sun. Library 10am-8pm Mon-Fri; 10am-2pm Sat. Café 10am-9pm Mon-Fri
Admission free.

Barcelona Casa Àmatller

2010-03-03T06:12:00.000-08:00

Casa Àmatller: Built for chocolate baron Antoni Àmatller, this playful building is one of Puig i Cadafalch's finest creations. Inspired by 17th-century Dutch townhouses, it has a distinctive stepped Flemish pediment covered in shiny ceramics, while the lower façade and doorway are decorated with lively sculptures by Eusebi Arnau. These include chocolatiers at work, almond trees and blossoms (in reference to the family name) and Sant Jordi slaying the dragon.

Besides chocolate, Àmatller's other great love was photography. His daughter later converted the family home into an art institute and archive for her father's vast archives, from which excellent selections are on display in the ground floor exhibition space. The guided tour of the house lasts around an hour and includes the ornate entrance hall, Antoni Àmatller's period photography studio and a tasting of Àmatller chocolate in the original kitchen. The façade of the Casa Àmatller building is currently undergoing restoration and it will be sheathed in particularly unphotogenic green netting for nearly all of 2009.

Address

Passeig de Gràcia 41
Area Eixample
Transport Metro Passeig de Gràcia.
Telephone 93 487 72 17
Open 10am-8.30pm daily.
Admission free; guided tour €5; reductions €2.50.

Barcelona: CaixaForum

2010-03-03T05:55:00.000-08:00

CaixaForum: One of the masterpieces of industrial Modernisme, this former yarn and textile factory was designed by Puig i Cadafalch in 1911. It spent most of the last century in a sorry state, acting briefly as a police barracks and then falling into dereliction. Fundació La Caixa, the charitable arm of Catalonia's largest savings bank, bought it and set about rebuilding.

The original brick structure of the CaixaForum was supported, while the ground below was excavated to house a strikingly modern entrance plaza by Arata Isozaki, a Sol LeWitt mural, an auditorium, a bookshop and a library. In addition to the permanent contemporary art collection of the CaixaForum, there are three impressive spaces for temporary exhibitions - often among the most interesting shows to be found in the city.

Address

Casaramona,
Avda Marquès de Comillas 6-8
Area Montjuic & Poble Sec
Transport Metro Espanya .
Telephone 93 476 86 00
Open 10am-8pm Mon-Fri, Sun; 10am-10pm Sat.
Admission free.

Antic Hospital de la Santa Creu & La Capella

2010-03-03T05:33:00.000-08:00

This was one of Europe's earliest medical centres. There was a hospital on the site as early as 1024, but in the 15th century it expanded to centralise all the city's hospitals and sanatoriums (with the exception of the Santa Margarida leper colony, which remained outside the city walls). By the 1920s, it was hopelessly overstretched, and its medical facilities were moved uptown to the Hospital Sant Pau. One of the last patients was Gaudí, who died here in 1926; it was also where Picasso painted one of his first important pictures, Dead Woman (1903).

The buildings combine a 15th-century Gothic core with Baroque and classical additions. They're now given over to cultural institutions, among them the Massana Arts School, a neighbourhood library, the Catalan National Library (the second largest in Spain), the Institute of Catalan Studies and the Royal Academy of Medicine, which hosts occasional concerts. Highlights include a neo-classical lecture theatre complete with revolving marble dissection table (open 10am-2pm Mon-Fri), and the entrance hall of the Casa de Convalescència, tiled with lovely Baroque ceramic murals telling the story of St Paul; one features an artery-squirting decapitation scene. La Capella, the hospital chapel, was rescued from a sad fate as a warehouse and sensitively converted to an exhibition space for contemporary art. The courtyard is a popular spot for reading or eating lunch.

Address

C/Carme 47-C/Hospital 56
Area Raval
Transport Metro Liceu.
Telephone (no phone)
Open 9am-8pm Mon-Fri; 9am-2pm Sat. La Capella (93 442 71 71) noon-2pm, 4-8pm Tue-Sat; 11am-2pm Sun.
Admission free.

Barcelona Ajuntament (City Hall)

2010-03-03T05:08:00.000-08:00

Around the left-hand corner of the Barcelona city hall's rather dull 18th-century neo-classical façade sits the old entrance, in a wonderfully flamboyant 15th-century Catalan Gothic façade. Inside Barcelona city hall, the building's centrepiece (and oldest part) is the famous Saló de Cent, where the Consell de Cent (Council of One Hundred) ruled the city between 1372 and 1714.

The Saló de Cròniques of Barcelona city hall is filled with Josep Maria Sert's immense black-and-gold mural (1928), depicting the early 14th-century Catalan campaign in Byzantium and Greece under the command of Roger de Flor. Full of art and sculptures by the great Catalan masters from Clarà to Subirachs, the interior of the Barcelona city hall is open for guided tours (in different languages) on Sundays.

Address

Plaça Sant Jaume
Area Barrí Gòtic
Transport Metro Jaume I or Liceu .
Telephone 93 402 73 64
Open Office 8.30am-2.30pm Mon-Fri. Visits 10.30am-1.30pm Sun.
Admission free.

Barcelona Refugi 307

2010-03-03T03:46:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Refugi 307: About 1,500 Barcelona civilians were killed during the air bombings of the Civil War, a fact that the government long silenced. As Poble Sec particularly suffered the effects of bombing, a large air-raid shelter was built partially into the mountain at the top of C/Nou de la Rambla; this is one of some 1,200 in the entire city. Now Barcelona Refugi 307 converted into a museum, it is worth a visit. The tour takes about 90mins.

Address

C/Nou de la Rambla 169
Area Montjuic & Poble Sec
Transport Metro Paral·lel.
Telephone 93 256 21 22
Open (guided tour & by appointment only) 11am, noon (Catalan), 1pm (Spanish) Sat, Sun.
Admission €2.

Barcelona Palau Güell

2010-03-03T02:59:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Palau Güell: A fortress-like edifice shoehorned into a narrow six-storey sliver, the Palau Güell was Gaudí's first major commission, begun in 1886 for textile baron Eusebi Güell. After major structural renovation, Barcelona Palau Güell has partially reopened to the public, and is expected to fully reopen soon.

For the time being visitors to Barcelona Palau Güell can look around the subterranean stables, with an exotic canopy of stone palm fronds on the ceiling, and the ground floor. Here the vestibule has ornate mudéjar carved ceilings from which the Güells could snoop on their arriving guests through the jalousie trellis-work; at the heart of the house lies the spectacular six-storey hall complete with musicians' galleries and topped by a dome covered in cobalt honeycomb tiles. Visitors are also shown a short video about the building. The antidote to this dark and gloomy palace lies on its roof terrace, decorated with a rainbow forest of 20 mosaic-covered chimneys.

Address

C/Nou de la Rambla 3
Area Raval
Transport Metro Drassanes or Liceu.
Telephone 93 317 39 74
Open 10am-2.30pm Tue-Sat.
Admission free.

Barcelona Museu Picasso

2010-03-03T02:35:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Museu Picasso: 'There is where it all began… where I understood how far I could go,' Picasso said of his formative years in Barcelona. His family arrived here just before his 14th birthday; the nine years he was based here, before moving to Paris at 23, were to exert a lifelong influence on his work.

After training in La Llotja art school (where his father taught), the poverty-stricken Picasso lived in the port area, where he became fascinated by the underbelly of fin-de-siècle Barcelona - its brothels, beggars and street entertainers feature heavily in his early work. He was also a key member of the bohemian circle of artists at the Quatre Gats café, several of whom became lifelong friends. One was Jaume Sabartés, who later became Picasso's secretary and founder of the Picasso Museum.

By the time the Picasso Museum opened in 1963, Picasso was world famous and the Picasso Museum was housed in the prestigious Palau Aguilar. Sabartés donated his own personal collection and also united most of Picasso's pieces from the city museums. The collection of the Barcelona Picasso Museum has grown to fill five adjoining palaces, with more than 3,500 permanent pieces and a constant stream of high-profile temporary shows.

Rather than being an overview of the artist's work, the Barcelona Picasso Museum is a record of the young Picasso's vital formative years.

The seamless presentation in the the Barcelona Picasso Museum of his development from 1890 to 1904, from deft pre-adolescent portraits to sketchy landscapes to the intense innovations of his Blue Period, is unbeatable. The Barcelona Picasso Museum then leaps to a gallery of mature Cubist paintings from 1917. Those looking for hits such as Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and the first Cubist paintings from the time (many of them done in Catalonia) will be disappointed. But the pièce de résistance is the complete series of 58 canvases based on Velázquez's Las Meninas, donated by Picasso himself after the death of Sabartés. Tribute is paid to Sabartés with a room dedicated to Picasso's portraits of him (best known is the Blue Period painting where he wears a white ruff), and Sabartés's own doodlings.

The display ends with linocuts, engravings and some wonderful ceramics donated by Picasso's widow. Guided tours in English take place at 6pm on Thursdays and noon Saturdays and are included in the ticket price.

Address

C/Montcada 15-23
Area Born & St Pere
Transport Metro Jaume I .
Telephone 93 256 30 00
Open (last ticket 30mins before closing) 10am-8pm Tue-Sun.
Admission All exhibitions €9; €5.80 reductions. Temporary exhibition only €5.80; €4.80 reductions; free under-16s. Free (museum only) 1st Sun of mth.

Barcelona Museu Olímpic i de l'Esport

2010-03-02T16:16:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Museu Olímpic i de l'Esport: Opened in 2007 in a new building across from the stadium, the Olympic and Sports Museum gives an overview of the Games (and, indeed, all games) from Ancient Greece onwards. As well as photos and film footage of great sporting moments and heroes, in the Olympic and Sports Museum there are an array of objects (Ronaldinho's boots, Mika Häkkinen's Mercedes), along with a collection of opening ceremony costumes and Olympic torches. Perhaps more entertaining are the interactive displays, such as one that compares your effort at the long jump with that of the pros.

Address

Avda Estadí 60
Area Montjuic & Poble Sec
Transport Bus 50, 55, 61 .
Telephone 93 292 53 79
Open Apr-Sept 10am-8pm Mon, Wed-Sat; 10am-2.30pm Sun. Oct-Mar 10am-6pm Mon, Wed-Sat; 10am-2.30pm Sun.
Admission €4; €2.50 reductions; free under-14s.

Barcelona Museu Marítim - Navy Museum

2010-03-02T15:55:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Museu Marítim: Even if you can't tell a caravel from a catamaran, the excellent Maritime Museum is well worth a visit, as the soaring arches and vaults of vast shipyards represent one the most perfectly preserved examples of civil Gothic architecture in Spain.

In medieval times, the shipyards sat right on the water's edge and were used to dry-dock, repair and build vessels for the royal fleets. The finest of these was Don Juan de Austria's galley, from which he commanded the fleet at Lepanto that defeated the Ottoman navy: a full-scale replica is the mainstay of the collection. With the aid of an audio guide of the Barcelona Museu Marítim, the maps, mastheads, nautical instruments, multimedia displays and models show you how shipbuilding and navigation techniques have developed over the years. Admission to the Barcelona Museu Marítim also covers the beautiful 1917 Santa Eulàlia schooner docked nearby in the Moll de la Fusta.

Address

Avda Drassanes
Area Raval
Transport Metro Drassanes .
Telephone 93 342 99 20
Open 10am-7pm daily.
Admission €6.50; €5.20 reductions; free under-7s. Temporary exhibitions vary. Combined ticket with Las Golondrinas (35mins) €9.60; €7.40 reductions; free under-4s. (1hr 30mins) €14.40; €5.50 reductions; free under-4s.

Barcelona Museu Frederic Marès

2010-03-02T15:39:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Museu Frederic: MarèsKleptomaniac and magpie, Frederic Marès (1893-1991) 'collected' everything he laid his hands on, from hairbrushes to opera glasses and gargoyles. Unlike most private 19th-century collectors, Marès didn't come from a wealthy family, but he spent every penny he earned as a sculptor and art professor on broadening his hoardings. Even when the Ajuntament gave him a palace in which to display his collection (and house himself), it wasn't enough; the overflow eventually spread to two other Marès museums in Montblanc and Arenys de Mar.

The exhibits in the Barcelona Museu Frederic Marès are divided into three main sections. The basement, ground floor and first floor of the Barcelona Museu Frederic Marès are devoted to sculpture dating from the Pre-Roman era to the 20th century, including a vast array of polychromed religious carvings, tombs, capitals and entire church portals, exquisitely carved. On the second floor of the Barcelona Museu Frederic Marès sits the Sentimental Museum, with objects from everyday life; look out for the Ladies' Room, filled with fans, sewing scissors and perfume flasks, and the Entertainment Room, with mechanical toys, puppets and a room dedicated to smoking paraphernalia. Also on the second floor of the Barcelona Museu Frederic Marès, comprising the third main collection, is a room devoted to photography, and Marès' study and library. It's now filled with sculptures, many of them his own.

Address

Plaça Sant Iu 5-6
Area Barrí Gòtic
Transport Metro Jaume I .
Telephone 93 310 58 00
Open 10am-7pm Tue-Sat; 10am-3pm Sun.
Admission €3; €1.50 reductions; free under-16s. Free 3-7pm Wed, 1st Sun of mth.

Barcelona Museu Etnològic - Ethnology Museum

2010-03-02T15:02:00.000-08:00

The Ethnology Museum houses a vast collection of items, from Australian Aboriginal boomerangs to rugs and jewellery from Afghanistan, although by far the most comprehensive collections are from Catalonia. Of the displays upstairs in the Ethnology Museum, most outstanding are the Moroccan, Japanese and Philippine exhibits, though in the Ethnology Museum there are also some interesting pre-Columbian finds. The attempts to arrange in the Ethnology Museum the pieces thematically, however, are not altogether successful: a potentially fascinating exhibition entitled 'Taboos', for instance, was a rather limp look at nudity in different cultures.

Address

Passeig de Santa Madrona s/n
Area Montjuic & Poble Sec
Transport Metro Poble Sec .
Telephone 93 424 68 07
Open June-Sept 10am-6pm Tue-Sat; 11am-3pm Sun. Oct-June 10am-7pm Tue, Thur, Sat; 10am-2pm Wed, Fri-Sun.
Admission €3.50; €1.70 reductions; free under-16s. Free 1st Sun of mth.

Museu Egipci de Barcelona (Egyptian Museum)

2010-03-02T14:25:00.000-08:00

One of the finest collections of Ancient Egyptian artefacts in Europe, this collection is owned by prominent Egyptologist Jordi Clos and spans 3,000 years of Nile-drenched culture. The exhibits include religious statuary, such as the massive baboon heads used to decorate temples, everyday copper mirrors and alabaster headrests, and some really rather moving infant sarcophagi. Outstanding pieces include some painstakingly matched fragments from the Sixth Dynasty Tomb of Iny, a bronze statuette of the goddess Isis breastfeeding her son Horus, and mummified cats, baby crocodiles and falcons. Another highlight is a 5,000-year-old bed, which still looks comfortable enough to sleep in. On Friday and Saturday nights, there are dramatic reconstructions of popular themes, such as the mummification ritual or the life of Cleopatra, for which reservations are essential. The museum entrance fee is waived for guests staying at the Hotel Claris, which is also owned by Clos.

Address
C/València 284
Area Eixample
Transport Metro Passeig de Gràcia .
Telephone 93 488 01 88
Open 10am-8pm Mon-Sat; 10am-2pm Sun.
Admission €11; €8 reductions; free under-5s.

Barcelona Museu Diocesà

2010-03-02T13:56:00.000-08:00

The Diocesan Museum contains a hotchpotch of religious art, everything from 14th-century alabaster virgins and altarpieces by Bernat Martorell to some wonderful Romanesque murals.

The Diocesan Museum building itself is also something of a mishmash; the Diocesan Museum includes the Gothic Pia Almoina, an almshouse and soup kitchen founded in 1009 and stuck on to a Renaissance canon's residence complete with Tuscan columns, which in turn was built inside an octagonal Roman defence tower.

The Diocesan Museum has space for two temporary exhibitions, usually dedicated to local artists, photographers and architects.

Address

Avda de la Catedral 4
Area Barrí Gòtic
Transport Metro Jaume I .
Telephone 93 315 22 13
Open 10am-2pm, 5-8pm Tue-Sat; 11am-2pm Sun.
Admission €6; €3 reductions; free under-7s.

Barcelona Museu d'Història de la Ciutat

2010-03-02T13:43:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Museu d'Història de la Ciutat: Stretching from the Plaça del Rei to the cathedral are 4,000sq m (43,000sq ft) of subterranean Roman excavations - streets, villas and storage vats for oil and wine, all discovered by accident in the late 1920s when a whole swath of the Gothic Quarter was upended to make way for the central avenue of Via Laietana. The excavations continued until 1960; today, the labyrinth is reached via the Casa Padellàs, a merchant's palace dating from 1498, which was laboriously moved from its original location in C/Mercaders for the construction of Via Laietana.

Admission for Barcelona Museu d'Història de la Ciutat also allows access to the Capella de Santa Àgata - with its 15th-century altarpiece by Jaume Huguet - and the Saló del Tinell, at least when there's no temporary exhibition. This majestic room in Barcelona Museu d'Història de la Ciutat began life in 1370 as the seat of the Catalan parliament and was converted in the 18th century into a Baroque church, which was dismantled in 1934. The Rei Martí watchtower is still closed to the public while it awaits reinforcement. Tickets for the museum are also valid for the monastery at Pedralbes and the Museu Verdaguer.

Address

Plaça del Rei 1
Area Barrí Gòtic
Transport Metro Jaume I .
Telephone 93 315 11 11
Open Apr-Sept 10am-8pm Tue-Sat; 10am-3pm Sun. Oct-Mar 10am-2pm, 4-7pm Tue-Sat; 10am-3pm Sun.
Admission Permanent exhibitions €6; €4 reductions; free under-16s. Temporary exhibitions €3.50; €2 reductions. Both free 4-8pm 1st Sat of mth.

Barcelona Museu d'Història de Catalunya - Catalan History Museum

2010-03-02T13:20:00.000-08:00

The Catalan History Museum spans the Lower Paleolithic era right up to Jordi Pujol's proclamation as President of the Generalitat in 1980. Catalan History Museum offers a virtual chronology of the region's past, through two floors of text, film, animated models and reproductions of everything from a medieval shoemaker's shop to a 1960s bar.

Hands-on activities in the Catalan History Museum, such as trying to lift a knight's armour or irrigating lettuces with a Moorish water wheel, add a little pzazz to the rather dry early history; to exit the exhibition, visitors walk over a huge 3-D map of Catalonia. Every section for the Catalan History Museum has a decent introduction in English; the reception desk can offer in-depth English-language museum guides free of charge, and the English website is also very complete. Excellent temporary exhibitions in the Catalan History Museum typically examine recent aspects of regional politics and history while the huge rooftop café terrace of the in the Catalan History Museum has unbeatable views over the city and marina.

Address

Plaça Pau Vila 3
Area Seafront
Transport Metro Barceloneta .
Telephone 93 225 47 00
Open 10am-7pm Tue, Thur-Sat; 10am-8pm Wed; 10am-2.30pm Sun.
Admission All exhibitions €5; €4 reductions; free under-7s. Temporary exhibitions €3; €2 reductions; free under-7s; free to all 1st Sun of mth.

Barcelona Museu del Perfum

2010-03-02T12:46:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Perfume Museum: In the back room of the Regia perfumery sits this collection of nearly 5,000 scent bottles, cosmetic flasks and related objects. The collection of the Barcelona Perfume Museum is divided in two.

The first section of the Barcelona Perfume Museum shows all manner of unguent vases and essence jars in chronological order, from a tube of black eye make-up from pre-dynastic Egypt to Edwardian atomisers and a prized double-flask pouch that belonged to Marie Antoinette.

The second section of the Barcelona Perfume Museum exhibits perfumery brands such as Guerlain and Dior; some are in rare bottles, among them a garish Dalí creation for Schiaparelli and a set of golliwog flasks by Vigny Paris. The Barcelona Perfume Museum's most recent addition includes a collection of 19th-century perfume powder bottles and boxes.

Address

Passeig de Gràcia 39
Area Eixample
Transport Metro Passeig de Gràcia .
Telephone 93 216 01 21
Open 10.30am-7.30 Mon-Fri; 10.30am-1.30 Sat.
Admission €5; €3 reductions.

Barcelona Museu del Calçat (Shoe Museum)

2010-03-02T12:38:00.000-08:00

Barcelona Museu del Calçat (Shoe Museum), housed in what was once part of the medieval shoemakers' guild, this quirky little museum details the cobbler's craft from practical Roman sandals to tottering '70s platform boots - so that's progress. The earlier examples in the Barcelona Museu del Calçat (Shoe Museum) are reproductions, although those from the 17th century to the present day are originals, including clogs, swagged musketeers' boots and even celebrity footwear such as the tiny shoes of diminutive cellist, Pau Casals.

Address

Plaça Sant Felip Neri 5
Area Barrí Gòtic
Transport Metro Jaume I.
Telephone 93 301 45 33
Open 11am-2pm Tue-Sun.
Admission €2.50; free under-7s.

Barcelona Museu de les Arts Aplicades (Disseny Hub Barcelona)

2010-03-02T12:20:00.000-08:00

In 2008, the Museu Tèxtil, Museu de les Arts Aplicades, previously located in the Born, joined the ceramic and decorative arts museums in the Palau Reial de Pedralbes, built in the 1920s and briefly used as a royal palace. The Textile Museum, Museu de les Arts Aplicades, provides a chronological tour of clothing and fashion, from its oldest piece, a man's Coptic tunic from a seventh-century tomb, through to Karl Lagerfeld. Among many curiosities in the Museu de les Arts Aplicades, such as an 18th-century bridal gown in black figured silk and the world's largest collection of kidskin gloves, the real highlight is the fashion collection - from Baroque to 20th-century - one of the finest of its type anywhere.

The Museum of Decorative Arts is informative and fun, and looks at the different styles informing the design of artefacts in Europe since the Middle Ages, from Romanesque to art deco and beyond. A second section is devoted to post-war Catalan design of objects as diverse as urinals and man-sized inflatable pens.

The Ceramics Museum is equally fascinating, showing how Moorish ceramic techniques from the 13th century were developed after the Reconquista with the addition of colours (especially blue and yellow) in centres such as Manises (in Valencia) and Barcelona. Upstairs is a section dedicated to 20th-century ceramics, with a room devoted to Miró and Picasso. The three museums, along with several smaller collections, are to be merged into a Museu de Disseny (Design Museum).

Address
Palau Reial de Pedralbes,

Avda Diagonal 686

Area Beyond the Centre

Transport Metro Palau Reial .

Telephone 93 280 16 21
Open 10am-6pm Tue-Sat; 10am-3pm Sun.
Admission €3.50; €2 reductions. Combined admission with temporary exhibition €5; €3 reductions; free under-16s. Free 1st Sun of mth.

Barcelona Museu de l'Eròtica

2010-03-02T11:56:00.000-08:00

Despite being a condom's toss from the red-light district, the Erotic Museum is a surprisingly limp affair. Expect plenty of filler in the form of Kama Sutra illustrations and airbrushed paintings of naked maidens, with the odd fascinating item such as studded chastity belts or a Victorian walking stick topped with an ivory vagina. Genuine rarities include Japanese drawings, a painful-looking 'pleasure chair' and compelling photos of brothels in the city's Barrio Chino in the decadent 1930s.

Address

La Rambla 96 bis
Area Raval
Transport Metro Liceu .
Telephone 93 318 98 65
Open June-Sept 10am-10pm daily. Oct-May 10am-9pm daily.
Admission €7.50; €6.50 reductions.

Barcelona Museu de la Xocolata

2010-03-02T11:38:00.000-08:00

Museu de la Xocolata, the best-smelling museum in town draws chocoholics of all ages to its collection of chocolate sculptures made by Barcelona's master pastissers for the Easter competition. These range from multicoloured models of Gaudí's Casa Batlló to characters from Chicken Run, while audio-visual shows and touch-screen computers help children make their way through what would otherwise be the rather dry history of the cocoa bean. Reserve for the Museu de la Xocolata in advance for weekend chocolate figurine-making courses and lessons in cooking desserts.

Address

C/Comerç 36, Born
Area Born & St Pere
Transport Metro Arc de Triomf or Jaume I .
Telephone 93 268 78 78
Museu de la Xocolata website
Open 10am-7pm Mon, Wed-Sat; 10am-3pm Sun.
Admission €4.30; €3.75 reductions; free under-7s.

Museu de la Màgia

2010-03-02T11:29:00.000-08:00

Museu de la Màgia: This collector's gallery of 19th- and 20th-century tricks and posters from the magic shop El Rei de la Màgia will enchant any budding magicians. To see some live sleight of hand, book for the shows; places are limited in the Museu de la Màgia. They're not in English, but they are fairly accessible regardless.

Address

C/Oli 6, Born
Area Born & St Pere
Transport Metro Jaume I .
Telephone 93 319 73 93
Open Show 6pm Sat; noon Sun. Closed July-Sept.
Admission €8.

Museu de Ciències Naturals (Natural History Museum)

2010-03-02T11:20:00.000-08:00

The Natural History Museum (Museu de Ciències Naturals) is split between Domènech i Montaner's turreted Castell dels Tres Dragons and the nearby Museu Martorell, housing the zoology and geology museums respectively.

The first floor of the Natural History Museum (Museu de Ciències Naturals), the zoology museum is a spooky hall of stuffed animals, preserved insects and molluscs, with many of the exotic felines supplied by the nearby zoo. Several animals from the collection of the Natural History Museum (Museu de Ciències Naturals) have enjoyed a moment of fame being lent out for TV and theatre shows and the horned Mouflon skull was the direct inspiration for the Oscar-winning faun make-up in the film Pan's Labyrinth. Don't expect any multimedia displays - this is a strictly old-school affair of glass cases and formaldehyde jars, although there are hands-on activities for children aged three to 12.

Over in the geology part of the Natural History Museum (Museu de Ciències Naturals), the entrance contains a permanent exhibition on the geology of the local volcanic region of Olot, while the recently expanded collection in the Hall of Mineralogy and Petrology includes meteorites, gems, crystals, radioactive minerals and rocks from the Earth's lithosphere. Some 300,000 fossils reside in the Palaeontology Hall alongside 12 full-scale 1917 replicas of large extinct animals. A combined ticket also grants entrance to the Jardí Botànic (Botanic Garden) on Montjuïc.

Address

Passeig Picasso,
Parc de la Ciutadella
Area Born & St Pere
Transport Metro Arc de Triomf .
Telephone 93 319 69 12
Open 10am-6.30pm Tue-Sat; 10am-2.30pm Sun.
Admission All exhibitions & Jardí Botànic €5.30; €3.70 reductions. Museums only €3.70; €2.10 reductions. Temporary exhibitions €4.10; €2.15 reductions. Free under-16s. Free 1st Sun of mth.

Barcelona Museu de Carrosses Fúnebres

2010-03-02T11:08:00.000-08:00

Finding the Museu de Carrosses Fúnebres, surely the most obscure and macabre museum in Barcelona, hasn't got any easier. You'll need to ask at the reception desk of the Ajuntament's funeral service and, eventually, a security guard will take you down to Museu de Carrosses Fúnebres, a perfectly silent and splendidly shuddersome basement housing the world's largest collection of funeral carriages and hearses dating from the 18th century through to the 1950s.

In the Museu de Carrosses Fúnebres there are ornate Baroque carriages and more functional Berlins and Landaus, and a wonderful '50s silver Buick. The white carriages were designed for children and virgins; there's a windowless black-velour mourning carriage for the forlorn mistress, ensuring both her presence and anonymity. The vehicles in the Museu de Carrosses Fúnebres are manned by ghoulish dummies dressed in period gear whose eyes follow you around the room, making you glad of that security guard. The museum is supposed to be moving to the cemetery on Montjuïc some day, although progress is, naturally, funereal.

Address

C/Sancho de Avila 2
Area Beyond the Centre
Transport Metro Marina .
Telephone 93 484 17 10
Open 10am-1pm, 4-6pm Mon-Fri; 10am-1pm Sat, Sun (call in advance to check).
Admission free.

Barcelona Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya

2010-03-02T10:58:00.000-08:00

The time frame for this archaeology collection of Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya starts with the Palaeolithic period, and there are relics of Greek, Punic, Roman and Visigothic colonisers, up to the early Middle Ages. A massive Roman sarcophagus is carved with scenes of the rape of Persephone, and an immense statue of Aesculapius, the god of medicine, towers over one room of the Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya.

A few galleries in the Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya are dedicated to the Mallorcan Talayotic cave culture, and there is an exemplary display on the Iberians, the pre-Hellenic, pre-Roman inhabitants of south-eastern Spain. An Iberian skull with a nail driven through it effectively demonstrates a typical method of execution from that time.

The display of the Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya ends with the marvellous, jewel-studded headpiece of a Visigoth king. One of the best-loved pieces in Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya, inevitably, is an alarmingly erect Priapus, found during building work in Sants in 1848 and kept under wraps 'for moral reasons' until 1986.

Address

Passeig de Santa Madrona 39-41
Area Montjuic & Poble Sec
Transport Metro Poble Sec .
Telephone 423 65 77
Open 9.30am-7pm Tue-Sat; 10am-2.30pm Sun.
Admission €3; €2.10 reductions; free under-16s.

Barecelona Museu Barbier-Mueller d'Art Precolombí

2010-03-02T10:24:00.000-08:00

Located in the 15th-century Palau Nadal, Museu Barbier-Mueller d'Art Precolombí, this world-class collection of pre-Columbian art was ceded to Barcelona in 1996 by the Barbier-Mueller Museum in Geneva. The Barcelona holdings of the Museu Barbier-Mueller d'Art Precolombí focus solely on the Americas, representing most of the styles from the ancient cultures of Meso-America, Andean America and the Amazon region. Dramatically spotlit in the black rooms of the Museu Barbier-Mueller d'Art Precolombí, the frequently changing selection of masks, textiles, jewellery and sculpture includes pieces dating from as far back as the second millennium BC running through to the early 16th-century (demonstrating just how loosely the term 'pre-Columbian' can be used).

Address

C/Montcada 14
Area Born & St Pere
Transport Metro Jaume I .
Telephone 93 310 45 16
Open 11am-7pm Tue-Fri; 10am-7pm Sat; 10am-3pm Sun.
Admission €3.50; €1.70 reductions; free under-16s. Free 1st Sun of mth.

Barcelona Monestir de Pedralbes

2010-03-02T10:04:00.000-08:00

In 1326, the widowed Queen Elisenda of Montcada used her inheritance to buy this land and build a convent for the Poor Clare order of nuns, which she soon joined. The result is a jewel of Gothic architecture with an understated single-nave church with fine stained-glass windows and a beautiful three-storey 14th-century cloister. The place was out of bounds to the general public until 1983, when the nuns, a closed order, opened it up as a museum in the mornings (when they escape to a nearby annexe).

The site offers a fascinating insight into life in a medieval convent, taking you through its kitchens, pharmacy and refectory, with its huge vaulted ceiling. To one side is the tiny chapel of Sant Miquel, with murals dating from 1343 by Ferrer Bassa, a Catalan painter and student of Giotto. In the former dormitory next to the cloister is a selection of illuminated books, furniture and items reflecting the artistic and religious life of the community. The price includes an audio-guide.

Address

Baixada del Monestir 9
Area Beyond the Centre
Transport FGC Reina Elisenda .
Telephone 93 256 21 22
Open Apr-Sept 10am-5pm Tue-Sat; 10am-3pm Sun. Oct-Mar 10am-2pm Mon-Sat; 10am-3pm Sun.
Admission €6; €4 reductions; free under-16s. Free 1st Sun of mth.

Barcelona MNAC (Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya)

2010-03-02T09:45:00.000-08:00

'One museum, a thousand years of art' is the slogan of the National Museum (Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya), and the collection provides a dizzying overview of Catalan art from the 12th to the 20th centuries. In recent years the museum has added an extra floor to absorb the holdings of the section of the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection that was previously kept in the convent in Pedralbes, along with the mainly Modernista holdings from the former Museum of Modern Art in Ciutadella park, a fine photography section, coins and the bequest of Francesc Cambó, founder of the autonomist Lliga Regionalista, a regionalist conservative party.

The highlight of the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, however, is still the Romanesque collection. As art historians realised that scores of solitary tenth-century churches in the Pyrenees were falling into ruin - and with them were going extraordinary Romanesque mural paintings that had served to instruct villagers in the basics of the faith - the laborious task was begun of removing the murals from church apses. The display here features 21 mural sections in loose chronological order. A highlight of Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya is the tremendous Crist de Taüll, from the 12th-century church of Sant Climent de Taüll. Even 'graffiti' scratchings (probably by monks) of animals, crosses and labyrinths have been preserved. The museum has recently acquired a major 13th-century Romanesque mural from the cathedral at La Seu d'Urgell.

The Gothic collection of the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya is also excellent and starts with some late 13th-century frescoes that were discovered in 1961 and 1997, when two palaces in the city were being renovated. There are carvings and paintings from local churches, including works of the indisputable Catalan masters of the Golden Age, Bernat Martorell and Jaume Huguet. The highlight of the Thyssen collection is Fra Angelico's Madonna of Humility (c1430), while the Cambó bequest contains some wonderful Old Masters. Also unmissable is the Modernista collection, which includes Ramon Casas' mural of himself and Pere Romeu on a tandem which decorated Els Quatre Gats. The rich collection of decorative arts in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya includes original furniture from Modernista houses.

Address

Palau Nacional,
Parc de Montjuïc
Area Montjuic & Poble Sec
Transport Metro Espanya
Telephone 93 622 03 76
Open 10am-7pm Tue-Sat; 10am-2.30pm Sun.
Admission (valid 2 days) Permanent exhibitions €8.50; €6 reductions. Temporary exhibitions €3.50-€5.50. Combined ticket with Poble Espanyol €12. Free over-65s, under-14s and 1st Sun of mth.

Barcelona MACBA (Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona)

2010-03-02T09:26:00.000-08:00

The real show at the MACBA is the building itself, Richard Meier's cool iceberg of a museum sitting imperturbably amid the ceaseless scrape and clatter of skateboarders on the Plaça dels Àngels. While the museum has fattened up its holdings considerably since opening in 1995, the shows are often heavily political in concept and occasionally radical to the point of inaccessibility, and queues to enter are practically unheard of. Perhaps aware of this, the MACBA's new director, Bartomeu Marí, has expressed the desire to put the thrill back into art. Given, however, that Marí is an inside man, and formerly the museum's chief curator, the real excitement will probably continue to be the skaters outside.

The exhibits of the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona cover the last 50 years or so; although there's no permanent collection as such, some of the works from the museum's holdings are usually on display. The earlier pieces are strong on artists such as Antonio Saura and Tàpies who were members of the Dau-al-Set, a group of radical writers and painters, much influenced by Miró, who kick-started the Catalan art movement after the post-Civil War years of cultural apathy. Jean Dubuffet and Basque sculptors Jorge Oteiza and Eduardo Chillida also feature. Works from the last 40 years are more global, with the likes of Joseph Beuys, Jean-Michel Basquiat, AR Penck and photographer Jeff Wall; the contemporary Spanish collection includes Catalan painting (Ferran García Sevilla, Miquel Barceló) and sculpture (Sergi Aguilar, Susana Solano). The Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona MACBA's new director also wants to expand the museum's works from the 1980s and '90s. Shows include German pop artist Thomas Bayrle and Brazilian Cildo Meireles (Feb-Apr) and a retrospective of John Cage. During the summer months, the MACBA - Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelonastays open until midnight (€3.50 after 8pm) and offers guided tours of the exhibitions (8.30pm and 10pm).

Address

Plaça dels Àngels 1
Area Raval
Transport Metro Catalunya.
Telephone 93 412 08 10
Open last wk in June-Sept 24 11am-8pm Mon, Wed; 11am-midnight Thur, Fri; 10am-8pm Sat; 10am-3pm Sun. last wk in Sept-June 23 11am-7.30pm Mon, Wed-Fri; 10am-8pm Sat; 10am-3pm Sun. Guided tours (Catalan/Spanish) 6pm Wed, Sat; noon Sun.
Admission Permanent collection €3; €2 reductions. Permanent & temporary exhibitions €7.50; €6 reductions. Temporary exhibitions €4; €3 reductions. Wed €3.50.

Barcelona La Pedrera (Casa Milà)

2010-03-02T09:05:00.000-08:00

La Pedrera (Casa Milà), described variously as rising dough, molten lava and a stone lung, the last secular building designed by Antoni Gaudí, the Casa Milà (popularly known as La Pedrera, 'the stone quarry') has no straight lines and is a stupendous and daring feat of architecture, the culmination of the architect's experimental attempts to recreate natural forms with bricks and mortar (not to mention ceramics and even smashed-up cava bottles).

Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, La Pedrera (Casa Milà) appears to have been washed up on shore, its marine feel complemented by Jujol's tangled balconies, doors of twisted kelp ribbon, sea-foamy ceilings and interior patios as blue as a mermaid's cave. When La Pedrera (Casa Milà) was completed in 1912, it was so far ahead of its time that the woman who financed it as her dream home, Roser Segimon, became the laughing stock of the city - hence the ugly 'stone quarry' tag.

La Pedrera (Casa Milà) rippling façade led local painter Santiago Rusiñol to quip that a snake would be a better pet than a dog for the inhabitants of the building. But La Pedrera has become one of Barcelona's best-loved buildings, and is adored by architects for its extraordinary structure: it is supported entirely by pillars, without a single master wall, allowing the vast asymmetrical windows of the façade to invite in great swathes of natural light.

There are three exhibition spaces in La Pedrera (Casa Milà). The first-floor art gallery hosts free shows of eminent artists, while the upstairs is dedicated giving visitors a finer appreciation of Gaudí: accompanied by an audio guide (included in the admission price) you can visit a reconstructed Modernista flat on the fourth floor, with a sumptuous bedroom suite by Gaspar Homar, while the attic, framed by parabolic arches worthy of a Gothic cathedral, holds a museum offering an insightful overview of Gaudí's career.

Best of La Pedrera (Casa Milà) is the chance to stroll on the roof of the La Pedrera (Casa Milà) building amid its trencadís-covered ventilation shafts: their heads are shaped like the helmets of medieval knights, which led the poet Pere Gimferrer to dub the spot 'the garden of warriors'.

Address

Passeig de Gràcia 92-C/Provença 261-265
Area Eixample
Transport Metro Diagonal .
Telephone 93 484 59 00
Open Jan, Dec 9am-6.30pm daily. Feb-Nov 9am-8pm daily.
Admission €8; €4.50 reductions; free under-12s.

Barcelona Fundación Alorda Derksen

2010-03-02T08:45:00.000-08:00

A garden furniture mogul might seem at first glance to be an unlikely art collector but Manuel Alorda and his wife Hanneke Derksen proved that there is no conflict between decking and painting when they opened this impressive gallery, Fundación Alorda Derksen, dedicated to 21st-century art, in April 2008.

Some pieces in the inaugural exhibition of the Fundación Alorda Derksen come from their own collection but as a patron of Tate Modern and the MACBA, Alorda's connections allowed him to borrow high-profile works of art that have never before been seen in Barcelona. The 24 large-scale pieces include part of Damien Hirst's Butterfly series, the Spots series and hyperrealist works themed on the birth of Hirst's son, in Fundación Alorda Derksen. Catalan conceptual artist Jaume Plensa's body sculpture of metal letter 'cells' also impresses as does Anselm Kiefer's colossal naval-themed piece, Die Grosse Fracht, at Fundación Alorda Derksen.

Address

C/Aragó 314
Area Eixample
Transport Metro Girona or Passeig de Gràcia .
Telephone 93 272 62 50
Open 10am-1pm, 4-7pm Wed, Fri. 10am-2pm, 4-8pm Sat. Closed Aug.
Admission €5; €3 reductions.

Barcelona Fundación Suñol

2010-03-02T08:18:00.000-08:00

Opened in 2007, the Fundación Suñol's two floors house the contemporary art collection of businessman Josep Suñol. There are 100 pieces, including painting, sculpture and photography, on show at a time, shuffled every six months (Jan and July) from an archive of 1,200 pieces amassed over 35 years. The collection includes historic artists of the avant-garde, predominantly Catalan and Spanish: Picasso, Miró and Pablo Gargallo, with international input from Giacometti, Man Ray and Warhol.

With superfluities removed, including labels, and chronology abandoned, works are arranged in careful, coherent compositions, by style, colour or even mood, in serene interlinking rooms of varying sizes. Helpful English-speaking staff and a pamphlet aid visitors and an additional information booklet costs €2. Nivell Zero offers a large exhibition space to younger avant-garde artists, with shorter-term poetry cycles, installations and multimedia projects.

Address

Passeig de Gràcia 98
Area Eixample
Transport Metro Diagonal .
Telephone 93 496 10 32
Open 4-8pm Mon-Wed, Fri, Sat.
Admission €5; €2.50 reductions.

Barcelona Fundación Joan Miró

2010-03-02T08:07:00.000-08:00

Josep Lluís Sert, who spent the years of the Franco dictatorship as Dean of the School of Design at Harvard University, designed one of the greatest museum buildings in the world on his return. Approachable, light and airy, these white walls and arches house a collection of more than 225 paintings, 150 sculptures and all of Miró's graphic work, plus some 5,000 drawings, all housed in the Fundación Joan Miró.

The permanent collection of the Fundación Joan Miró, highlighting Miró's trademark use of primary colours and simplified organic forms symbolising stars, the moon, birds and women, occupies the second half of the space. On the way to the sculpture gallery is Alexander Calder's rebuilt Mercury Fountain, originally seen at the Spanish Republic's Pavilion at the 1937 Paris Fair. In other works, Miró is shown as a cubist (Street in Pedralbes, 1917), naive (Portrait of a Young Girl, 1919) and surrealist (Man and Woman in Front of a Pile of Excrement, 1935). In the upper galleries, large, black-outlined paintings from Miró's final period precede a room of works with political themes.

Temporary shows of the Fundación Joan Miró have improved significantly, providing an often humorous contrast to Míro. Exhibitions at the foundation include American Modernity: Works from the Corcoran Gallery and Kiki Smith: Her Memory. The Espai 13 in the basement features young contemporary artists (€2.50). Outside is a small sculpture garden with work by contemporary Catalan artists.

Address

Parc de Montjuïc s/n
Area Montjuic & Poble Sec
Transport Metro Paral·lel then Funicular de Montjuïc/61 bus .
Telephone 93 443 94 70
Open July-Sept 10am-8pm Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat; 10am-9.30pm Thur; 10am-2.30pm Sun. Oct-June 10am-7pm Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat; 10am-9.30pm Thur; 10am-2.30pm Sun.
Admission All exhibitions €8; €6 reductions. Temporary exhibitions €4; €3 reductions free under-14s.

Barcelona Fundación Joan Brossa

2010-03-02T07:32:00.000-08:00

This polymathic artist, Joan Brossa (1919-98) left his fingerprints all over his home city, not only in physical sculptures such as the letters spelling 'Barcino' by the cathedral or the Illusory Clock outside the Poliorama Theatre on La Rambla but also in his vast legacy of poems, theatre plays, tireless campaigning for the Catalan language, the Espai Escènic Joan Brossa theatrical space in the Born, and the founding of the Dau-al-Set avant-garde art movement in 1948.

The permanent collection at the Fundación Joan Brossa fills three white rooms with some 35 of Brossa's visual and object poems along with posters, manuscripts, books and plays along with photographs and screenings of some of his short films.

Address

C/Provença 318
Area Eixample
Transport Metro Diagonal or Verdaguer .
Telephone 93 467 69 52
Open 10am-2pm, 3-7pm Mon-Fri. Closed Aug.

Admission free.

Barcelona Fundació Francisco Godia

2010-03-02T07:10:00.000-08:00

Newly transplanted in late 2008 from a first-floor flat to the Casa Garriga Nogués - a Modernista masterpiece in its own right - this vast private art collection now has enough room to breathe in Fundació Francisco Godia, with two floors of exhibition space.

Godia was a Formula 1 driver for Maserati in the 1950s who funnelled his considerable fortune into an impressive selection of medieval religious art, historic Spanish ceramics, sculpture and modern painting. The permanent collection of the Fundació Francisco Godia resides on the upper floor and largely consists of medieval sculptures and paintings, including Alejo de Vahía's Pietà and a Baroque masterpiece by Lucio Giordano, along with some outstanding Romanesque sculptures.

The inaugu-ral temporary exhibition of the Fundació Francisco Godia on the ground floor showcases Godia's contemporary collection with pieces by Ramon Casas, Eduardo Chillida, Picasso, Antoni Tàpies and Joan Miró.

Address

C/Diputació 250
Area Eixample
Transport Metro Passeig de Gràcia .
Telephone 93 272 31 80
Open 10am-8pm Mon, Wed-Sun. Closed Aug.
Admission €4.50; €2.10 reductions; free under-5s.

Dalí Barcelona Real Cercle Artístic

2010-03-02T07:01:00.000-08:00

This private collection of Dalí sculptures looks right at home amid the dramatic red velvet curtains and high, Gothic arches of the ground floor and basement of the Palau Pignatelli, Dalí Barcelona Real Cercle Artístic.

In his later years, Dalí signed his name to almost anything, but these 44 pieces were moulded by his own hands in wax by the pool at his house in Port Lligat and show he was just as accomplished at sculpting as painting. Broadly divided into themes such as eroticism, Don Quixote and mythology, they include such gems as a small bronze that's simultaneously a swan, a dragon and an elephant, and an erotic vision of Dulcinea, Quixote's reluctant lady.

The collection of the Dalí Barcelona Real Cercle Artístic is supplemented by more than 600 drawings, sketches, lithographs and photographs. There's also a related temporary exhibition space (with items for sale and free entry) which has recently included shows by Dalí's niece, Lali Bas Dalí and his muse, Amanda Lear. Upstairs, the Royal Art Circle welcomes visitors to its free exhibitions.

CosmoCaixa

2010-03-02T06:43:00.000-08:00

Said to be the biggest science museum in Europe, CosmoCaixa doesn't, perhaps, make the best use of its space. A glass-enclosed spiral ramp runs down an impressive six floors, but actually represents quite a long walk to reach the main collection five floors down. Here you'll find the Flooded Forest, a reproduction of a corner of Amazonia complete with flora and fauna, and the Geological Wall, along with temporary exhibitions.

From here, it's on to the Matter Room, which covers 'inert', 'living', 'intelligent' and then 'civilised' matter: in other words, natural history. However, for all the fanfare made by the museum about taking exhibits out of glass cases and making scientific theories accessible, many of the displays still look very dated. Written explanations often tend towards the impenetrable, containing phrases such as 'time is macroscopically irreversible', and making complex those concepts that previously seemed simple.

On the plus side, the installations for children are excellent: the Planetarium pleases those aged five to eight, and the wonderful Clik (ages three to six) and Flash (seven to nine) introduce children to science through games. Toca Toca! ('Touch Touch') educates children on which animals and plants are safe and which to avoid. One of the real highlights, for both young and old, is the hugely entertaining sound telescope outside on the Plaça de la Ciència.

Address
C/Teodor Roviralta 47-51
Area Beyond the Centre
Transport Bus 60/FGC Avda Tibidabo then Tramvia Blau .
Telephone 93 212 60 50
Open July-mid Sept 10am-8pm daily. Mid Sept-June 10am-8pm Tue-Sun.
Admission €3; €2 reductions; free under-7s. Planetarium €2; €1.50 reductions; free under-7s.

Art Center Santa Monica - Centre d'Art Santa Mònica

2010-02-25T09:12:00.000-08:00

In a controversial move, the Generalitat appointed new director Vicenç Altaió to pump up the lacklustre visitor numbers for this contemporary art space, Art Center Santa Monica. Altaió takes his position in January 2009 and has vowed to create 'a multidisciplinary centre for art, science, thought and communication', although detractors fear that the governmental hijacking of the management will mean diluted programming. After remodelling, the museum Art Center Santa Monica reopened in March 2009 with an exhibition titled 'Architecture Without Place'.

Other plans for the Art Center Santa Monica include reactivating Vilajoana's neon sculpture of the Cheshire Cat's grin across the façade and turning Drassanes metro station into a sister exhibition space.

Address La Rambla 7 Area Raval
Transport Metro Drassanes .
Telephone 93 316 28 10
Open 11am-8pm Tue-Sat; 11am-3pm Sun.

Admission free