Barcelona Museu de Carrosses Fúnebres

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.