Barcelona

We’ve compiled the best of the best in Barcelona - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.

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  • 1. Antic Hospital de la Santa Creu

    Founded in the 10th century, one of Europe's earliest medical complexes contains some of Barcelona's most impressive Gothic architecture. The buildings that survive today date from mainly to the 15th and 16th centuries; the first stone for the hospital was laid by King Martí el Humà (Martin the Humane) in 1401. From the entrance on Carrer del Carme, the first building on the left is the 18th-century Reial Acadèmia de Medicina de Catalunya (Royal Academy of Medicine); the surgical amphitheater is kept just as it was in the days when students learned by observing dissections. (One assumes that the paupers' hospital next door was always ready to oblige with cadavers.) The Academy is open to the public for guided tours on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. Across the way on the right is the gateway into the patio of the Casa de la Convalescència, where patients who survived their treatment in the hospital were moved for recuperation. It now houses the Institute for Catalan Studies. The walls of the forecourt are covered with brightly decorated scenes of the life of St. Paul in blue and yellow ceramic tiles. The story begins with the image to the left of the door to the inner courtyard, recounting the moment of the saint's conversion: Savle, Savle, quid me persegueris? ("Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"). The ceramicist, Llorenç Passolas, also designed the late-17th-century tiles around the inner patio. The image of St. Paul in the center of the pillared courtyard, over what was once a well, pays homage to the building's first benefactor, Pau Ferran. Look for the horseshoes, two of them around the keyholes, on the double wooden doors in the entryway: tokens of good luck for the afflicted who came here to recover—again, in reference to benefactor Ferran, from ferro (iron), as in ferradura (horseshoe). Through a gate to the left of the Casa de Convalescència is the garden-courtyard of the hospital complex, the Jardins de Rubió i Lluc, centered on a baroque cross and lined with orange trees. On the right is the Biblioteca de Catalunya ( Carrer de l'Hospital 56  93/270–2300  www.bnc.cat  Closed Sun.), Catalonia's national library and—with some 2 million volumes in its collection—second only to Madrid's Biblioteca Nacional. The stairway under the arch, leading up to the library, was built in the 16th century. The Gothic well to the left of the arch is from the 15th century, as is the little Romeo-and-Juliet balcony in the corner to the left of the doors to the Escola Massana academy of design. The library itself is spectacular: two parallel halls—once the core of the hospital—230 feet long, with towering Gothic arches and vaulted ceilings, designed in the 15th century by the architect of the church of Santa Maria del Pi, Guillem Abiell. This was the hospital where Antoni Gaudí was taken, unrecognized and assumed to be a pauper, after he was struck by a trolley on June 7, 1926. Among the library's collections are archives recording Gaudí's admittance and photographs of the infirmary and the private room where he died. The staggering antiquarian resources here go back to the earliest history of printing, and range from silver medieval book covers to illuminated manuscripts from the Llibre Vermell (Red Book) of medieval Catalonian liturgical music, to rare editions of Cervantes.  Leave the complex through the heavy wooden doors to Carrer Hospital, and turn left toward La Rambla. The next set of doors leads to the Capella (Chapel) of the hospital, an interesting art space well worth a visit. Built in the early 15th century, on the site of what had been the old Hospital de Colom (founded in 1219), it is now a showcase for promising young artists, chosen by a jury of prominent museum directors and given this impressive space, with its Romanesque tunnel vault and medieval arches, to exhibit their work.

    Hospital 56 (or Carme 45), 08001, Spain
    93-270–2300-Biblioteca de Catalunya

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: €10 (Reial Acadèmia de Medicina de Catalunya tour, Wed. and Sat.), Biblioteca de Catalunya and Capella: Closed Sun.
  • 2. CaixaForum Barcelona

    The 1911 Casaramona textile factory, a neo-Mudejar Art Nouveau masterpiece by Josep Puig i Cadafalch (architect of Casa de les Punxes, Casa Amatller, and Casa Quadras), is now a center for temporary art exhibits, as well as concerts, live performances, and other cultural events. The original brickwork is spectacular, while a 2002 restoration added sleek white modern entryway designed by Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, also responsible for the nearby Palau Sant Jordi. 

    Av. Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia 6–8, 08038, Spain
    93-476–8600

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: Free to enter museum, exhibits €6
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  • 3. Casa Batlló

    Gaudí at his most spectacular, the Casa Batlló is actually a makeover: it was originally built in 1877 by one of Gaudí's teachers, Emili Sala Cortés, and acquired by the Batlló family in 1900. Batlló wanted to tear down the undistinguished Sala building and start over, but Gaudí persuaded him to remodel the facade and the interior, and the result is astonishing. The facade—with its rainbow of colored glass and trencadís (polychromatic tile fragments) and the toothy masks of the wrought-iron balconies projecting outward toward the street—is an irresistible photo op. Nationalist symbolism is at work here: the scaly roof line represents the Dragon of Evil impaled on St. George's cross, and the skulls and bones on the balconies are the dragon's victims, allusions to medieval Catalonia's code of chivalry and religious piety. Gaudí is said to have directed the composition of the facade from the middle of Passeig de Gràcia, calling instructions to workmen on the scaffolding. Inside, the translucent windows on the landings of the central staircase light up the maritime motif and the details of the building; as everywhere in his oeuvre, Gaudí opted for natural shapes and rejected straight lines.  A visit to Casa Batlló is more than a traditional tour of a museum or monument. The fully restored house is packed with state-of-the-art technologies, including immersive rooms, surprising audiovisual productions, and an intelligent audio guide available in 15 languages. Children especially will enjoy an Augmented Reality SmartGuide: a fun, interactive way to discover the genius of Gaudí. From May to October, finish your visit with an open-air concert on the roof (starts at 8 pm) and a drink, as part of the "Magic Nights" program. Budget-conscious visitors take note: The admission fee is rather high but there are discounts for booking in advance online; you can also just take in the view from outside the Casa Batlló and instead visit the Casa Milà, up the Passeig de Gràcia on the opposite side.

    Passeig de Gràcia 43, 08007, Spain
    93-216–0306

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: From €35
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  • 4. Casa Milà

    Usually referred to as "La Pedrera" (the Stone Quarry), this building, with its curving stone facade undulating around the corner of the block, is one of Gaudí's most celebrated yet initially reviled designs. Topped by chimneys so eerie they were nicknamed espantabruixes (witch scarers), the Casa Milà was unveiled in 1910 to the horror of local residents. The exterior has no straight lines; the curlicues and wrought-iron foliage of the balconies, sculpted by Josep Maria Jujol, and the rippling, undressed stone, made you feel, as one critic put it, "as though you are on board a ship in an angry sea." Gaudí's rooftop chimney park, alternately interpreted as veiled Saharan women or helmeted warriors, is as spectacular as anything in Barcelona, especially in late afternoon when the sunlight slants over the city into the Mediterranean. Inside, the handsome Àtic de la Balena (Whale Attic) has excellent critical displays of Gaudí's works from all over Spain, as well as explanations of his theories and techniques. The Pis dels veïns (Tenants’ Apartment) is an interesting look into the life of a family that lived in La Pedrera in the early 20th century. People still occupy the other apartments. In the summer, lines of visitors waiting to see the Pedrera can stretch a block or more; if you sign up for "Gaudí's Pedrera: Night Experience" you'll tour the building by night, with a spectacular illuminated projection. Check the website for tour times and book online. Bookings are essential. On La Pedrera Jazz (Friday and Saturday summer nights) the Àtic de la Balena and the roof terrace are open for drinks and jazz concerts; the doors open at 8:15 pm and concerts begin at 8:45. Priced at €38, admission includes a visit to the whale attic, the concert, and a drink.

    Passeig de Gràcia 92, 08008, Spain
    93-214–2576

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: From €25
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  • 5. Casa Vicens

    Antoni Gaudí's first important commission as a young architect was built between 1883 and 1885 and it stands out for its colorful facade of green and white checkered tiles, in combination with tiles with floral patterns. The client, Manel Vicens i Montaner, a stock and currency broker, entrusted the young architect with designing his summer residence in the former village of Gràcia. The home is a triumph of early Catalan Modernisme, borrowing freely from architectural styles around the world including Moderniste (with its sinuous nature-inspired motifs) and Orientalist and Mudejar (Moorish-inspired) elements, evident in the ornate tile work.  In 1925 Antonio Jover i Puig, a prominent local doctor, purchased the house and greatly altered the interiors; in 2014, it was sold to the Andorra-based MoraBanc which established a foundation to preserve this remarkable historic property, and opened it to the public in 2017. Recent renovations have restored much of Gaudí’s original design. The marvelous interiors feature trompe-l'oeil birds painted on the walls and intricately carved ceilings; the phantasmic Orientalist papier-mâché tiles and cupola in the smoking alcove on the main floor is enough to make you wonder what folks back then were putting in their pipes. In any case, it is a must-visit.

    Carrer de les Carolines 20–26, 08012, Spain
    93-271–1064

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: €16
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  • 6. Ciutadella Park

    Once a fortress designed to consolidate Madrid's military occupation of Barcelona, the Ciutadella is now the city's main downtown park. The clearing dates from shortly after the War of the Spanish Succession in the early 18th century, when Felipe V demolished some 1,000 houses in what was then the Barri de la Ribera to build a fortress and barracks for his soldiers and a glacis (open space) between rebellious Barcelona and his artillery positions. The fortress walls were pulled down in 1868 and replaced by gardens laid out by Josep Fontseré. In 1888 the park was the site of the Universal Exposition that put Barcelona on the map as a truly European city; today it is home to the Castell dels Tres Dragons, built by architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner as the café and restaurant for the exposition (the only building to survive that project, now a botanical research center), the Catalan parliament, and the city zoo.

    Passeig de Picasso 21, 08003, Spain
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  • 7. Fundació Joan Miró

    The masterpieces by native Barcelona artist Joan Miró (1893–1983) on display at this museum include paintings, sculpture, and textile works from all periods of his life. They coexist with temporary exhibitions of 20th and 21st century artists, and, in the newer Espai 13 space, cutting-edge contemporary art. The airy white building, with panoramic views north over Barcelona, was designed by the artist's close friend and collaborator Josep Lluís Sert and opened in 1975. Extensions were added by Sert's pupil Jaume Freixa in 1988 and 2000. Miró's playful and colorful style, filled with Mediterranean light and humor, seems a perfect match for the surroundings. Various patios, as well as the roof terrace, are home to notable Miró sculptures, including the bronze Sun, Moon and one Star with a dramatic backdrop of the city. The artist rests in the cemetery on Montjuïc's southern slopes.

    Parc de Montjuïc s/n, 08038, Spain
    93-443–9470

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: €14, free with Barcelona Card, Closed Mon.
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  • 8. Gran Teatre del Liceu

    Barcelona's opera house has long been considered one of the most beautiful in Europe, a rival to La Scala in Milan. First built in 1848, this cherished cultural landmark was torched in 1861, later bombed by anarchists in 1893, and once again gutted by an accidental fire in early 1994. During that most recent fire, Barcelona's soprano Montserrat Caballé stood on La Rambla in tears as her beloved venue was consumed. Five years later, a restored Liceu, equipped for modern productions, opened anew. Some of the Liceu's most spectacular halls and rooms, including the glittering foyer known as the Saló dels Miralls (Room of Mirrors), were untouched by the fire of 1994, as were those of Spain's oldest social club, El Círculo del Liceu—established in 1847 and restored to its pristine original condition after the fire. 

    La Rambla 51–59, 08002, Spain
    93-485–9900
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  • 9. KBr Photography Center

    Port Olímpic

    Set inside the glassy MAPFRE Tower near the Port Olímpic, this new venue for photography, supported by the MAPFRE Foundation, showcases comprehensive temporary exhibits of international photographers such as Lee Friedlander, Paul Strand, and Catalan photojournalist Adolf Mas.

    Ave. Litoral 30, Barcelona, Catalonia, 08005, Spain
    +34-93-272–3180

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: €5, Closed Mon.
  • 10. La Boqueria

    Barcelona's most spectacular food market, also known as the Mercat de Sant Josep, is an explosion of life and color. As you turn in from La Rambla, you're greeted by bar-restaurants serving tapas at counters and stall after stall selling fruit, herbs, veggies, nuts, candied preserves, cheese, ham, fish, poultry, and other types of provender. Although you can avoid the worst of the crowds by browsing before 8 am and after 5 pm, most of the time, you'll have to wade through throngs of both locals and visitors. Indeed, the market has become so popular, that tourist groups of 15 people or more are banned from entering between 8 am to 3 pm Monday through Saturday. Under a Moderniste hangar of wrought-iron girders and stained glass, the market occupies a Neoclassical square built in 1840, after the original Sant Josep convent was torn down, by architect Francesc Daniel Molina. The Ionic columns around the edges of the market were part of the mid-19th-century square, uncovered in 2001 after more than a century of neglect. Highlights include the sunny greengrocers' market outside (to the right if you enter from La Rambla), along with Pinotxo (Pinocchio), just inside to the right, where owner Juanito Bayén and his family serve some of the best food in Barcelona. The secret? "Fresh, fast, hot, salty, and garlicky." If it's too crowded to find a seat, the Kiosko Universal, over toward the port side of the market, and Quim de la Boqueria, both offer delicious alternatives. Don't miss the fruits del bosc (fruits of the forest) specialty stand at the back of the market, with its display of wild mushrooms, herbs, nuts, and berries.

    La Rambla 91, 08002, Spain
    93-413–2345

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: Closed Sun.
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  • 11. La Catedral de Barcelona

    Barcelona's cathedral is a repository of centuries of the city's history and legend—although as a work of architecture visitors might find it a bit of a disappointment, compared to the Mediterranean Gothic Santa Maria del Mar and Gaudí's Moderniste Sagrada Família. It was built between 1298 and 1450; work on the spire and neo-Gothic facade began in 1892 and was not completed until 1913. Historians are not sure about the identity of the architect: one name often proposed is Jaume Fabre, a native of Mallorca. The building is perhaps most impressive at night, floodlit with the stained-glass windows illuminated from inside; book a room with a balcony at the Hotel Colon, facing the cathedral square, and make the most of it. This is reputedly the darkest of all the world's great cathedrals—even at high noon the nave is enveloped in shadows, which give the appearance that it's larger than it actually is—so it takes a while for your eyes to adjust to the rich, velvety pitch of the interior. Don't miss the beautifully carved choir stalls of the Knights of the Golden Fleece; the intricately and elaborately sculpted organ loft over the door out to Plaça Sant Iu (with its celebrated Saracen's Head sculpture); the series of 60-odd wood sculptures of evangelical figures along the exterior lateral walls of the choir; the cloister with its fountain and geese in the pond; and, in the crypt, the tomb of Santa Eulàlia. St. Eulàlia, originally interred at Santa Maria del Mar—then known as Santa Maria de les Arenes (St. Mary of the Sands)—was moved to the cathedral in 1339, and venerated here as its patron and protector. Eulalistas (St. Eulàlia devotees, rivals of a sort to the followers of La Mercé, or Our Lady of Mercy) celebrate the fiesta of La Laia (the nickname for Eulàlia) for a few days around her feast day on February 12. Enter from the front portal (there are also entrances through the cloister and from Carrer Comtes down the left side of the apse), and the first thing you see are the high-relief sculptures of the story of St. Eulàlia, on the near side of the choir stalls. The first scene, on the left, shows St. Eulàlia in front of Roman Consul Decius with her left hand on her heart and her outstretched right hand pointing at a cross in the distance. In the next, she is tied to a column and being whipped by the consul's thugs. To the right of the door into the choir the unconscious Eulàlia is being hauled away, and in the final scene on the right she is being lashed to the X-shape cross upon which she was crucified in mid-February in the year 303. To the right of this high relief is a sculpture of the martyred heroine, resurrected as a living saint. Among the two dozen ornate and gilded chapels in the basilica, pay due attention to the Capella de Lepant, dedicated to Sant Crist de Lepanto, in the far right corner as you enter through the front door. According to legend, the 15th-century polychrome wood sculpture of a battle-scarred, dark-skinned Christ, visible on the altar of this 100-seat chapel behind a black-clad Mare de Deu dels Dolors (Our Lady of the Sorrows), was the bowsprit of the flagship Spanish galley at the battle fought between Christian and Ottoman fleets on October 7, 1571. Outside the main nave of the cathedral to the right, you'll find the leafy, palm tree–shaded cloister surrounding a tropical garden and a pool said to be populated by 13 snow-white geese, one for each of the tortures inflicted upon St. Eulàlia in an effort to break her faith. Legend has it that they are descendants of the flock of geese from Rome's Capitoline Hill, whose honking alarms roused the city to repel invaders during the days of the Roman Republic. Don't miss the fountain with the bronze sculpture of an equestrian St. George, hacking away at his perennial foe, the dragon, on the eastern corner of the cloister. On the day of Corpus Christi, this fountain is one of the more spectacular displays of the traditional l'ou com balla (dancing egg). In front of the cathedral is the grand square of Plaça de la Seu, where on occasion, barcelonins gather to dance the sardana, the circular folk dance performed for centuries as a symbol-in-motion of Catalan identity and the solidarity of the Catalan people. Nimble-footed oldsters share the space with young esbarts (dance troupes), coats and bags piled in the center of the ring, all dancing together to the reedy music of the cobla (band) in smooth, deceptively simple, heel-and-toe sequences of steps. This is no tourist attraction: Catalans dance the sardana just for themselves. Check local listings for the annual series of evening organ concerts held in the cathedral.

    Pl. de la Seu s/n, 08002, Spain
    93-342–8262

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: Free for worshippers; cultural/tourist visits €9 (includes cathedral, cloister, roof, choir, and Chapel Hall); €15 (includes entry to the Diocesan Museum)
  • 12. Moco Museum Barcelona

    A stone’s throw from the Museu Picasso, this privately owned museum displays works by contemporary and modern masters—along with edgy street art—in a beautiful, centuries-old former palace. Small but mighty, the collection includes pieces by Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Damien Hirst, and Banksy, plus a towering site-specific statue by graffiti artist KAWS in the entry courtyard.

    Montcada, 25, 08003, Spain
    93-629–1858

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: €17.95 (save by booking online or with Barcelona Card)
  • 13. Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA)

    Designed by American architect Richard Meier in 1992, this gleaming explosion of light and geometry in El Raval houses a permanent collection of contemporary art, and also regularly mounts special temporary exhibitions. Meier gives a nod to Gaudí (with the Pedrera-like wave on one end of the main facade), but his minimalist building otherwise looks unfinished. That said, the MACBA is unarguably an important addition to the cultural capital of this once-shabby neighborhood. Skateboarders weave in and out around Basque sculptor Jorge Oteiza's massive sculpture, La Ola (The Wave), in the courtyard; the late Eduardo Chillida's Barcelona covers half the wall in the little square off Calle Ferlandina, on the left of the museum, in the sculptor's signature primitive black geometrical patterns. Don't miss Keith Haring's public mural on the wall that links Carrer de Ferlandina to Plaça Joan Coromines. The MACBA's 20th-century art collection (Calder, Rauschenberg, Oteiza, Chillida, Tàpies) is excellent, as is the free app, which provides a useful introduction to the philosophical foundations of contemporary art as well as the pieces themselves. The museum also offers wonderful workshops and activities for kids. Group tours (for a minimum of 15 people) are available in English and must be booked at least a week in advance.

    Pl. dels Àngels 1, 08001, Spain
    93-412–0810

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: €12, from €10.20 online, free Sat. after 4 and with Barcelona Card, Closed Tues.
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  • 14. Museu d'Història de Barcelona (MUHBA)

    This fascinating museum just off Plaça del Rei traces Barcelona's evolution from its first Iberian settlement through its Roman and Visigothic ages and beyond. The Romans took the city during the Punic Wars, and you can tour underground remains of their Colonia Favencia Iulia Augusta Paterna Barcino (Favored Colony of the Father Julius Augustus Barcino) via metal walkways. Some 43,000 square feet of archaeological artifacts, from the walls of houses, to mosaics and fluted columns, workshops (for pressing olive oil and salted fish paste), and street systems, can be found in large part beneath the plaça. See how the Visigoths and their descendants built the early medieval walls on top of these ruins, recycling chunks of Roman stone and concrete, bits of columns, and even headstones. In the ground-floor gallery is a striking collection of marble busts and funerary urns discovered in the course of the excavations. Guided tours are available in English at 10:30 am daily, but have to be reserved in advance. The price of admission to the museum includes entry to the other treasures of the Plaça del Rei, including the Palau Reial Major, the splendid Saló del Tinell, and the chapel of Santa Àgata. Also included are visits to other sites maintained by the museum: the most important and central of these are the Temple of Augustus, the Door of the Sea (the largest of the Roman-era city gates) and Dockside Thermal Baths, the Roman Funeral Way in the Plaça de la Vila de Madrid, and the Call (medieval Barcelona's Jewish quarter).

    Pl. del Rei s/n, 08002, Spain
    93-256–2100

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: From €7; free with Barcelona Card, Sat. and the first Sun. of month, Closed Mon.
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  • 15. Museu del Disseny de Barcelona

    This eye-catching center for design is home to six permanent collections covering everything from textiles, historical clothing, and haute couture to ceramics (with a number of pieces by Miró and Picasso), decorative arts, and graphic design. The product design and modern and contemporary furniture collections are particularly outstanding. Temporary exhibits run the gamut, with recent shows devoted to the graffiti art of Banksy, Balenciaga's exquisite hats, and COVID design initiatives. The building itself, by MBM Arquitectes (Oriol Bohigas, doyen of the firm, was the prime mover in much of Barcelona's makeover for the 1992 Olympics), juts out like a multistoried wedge into the Plaça de les Glòries.

    Pl. de les Glòries Catalans 37–8, 08018, Spain
    93-256–6800

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: €6; free Sun. 3–8 and all day 1st Sun. every month, and with Barcelona Card; temporary exhibit cost varies, Closed Mon.
  • 16. Museu Marítim

    This superb museum is housed in the 13th-century Drassanes Reials (Royal Shipyards), at the foot of La Rambla adjacent to the harborfront. This vast covered complex launched the ships of Catalonia's powerful Mediterranean fleet directly from its yards into the port (the water once reached the level of the eastern facade of the building). Today, these are the world's largest and best-preserved medieval shipyards. Centuries ago, at a time when the region around Athens was a province of the House of Aragón (1311–90), they were of crucial importance to the sea power of Catalonia (then the heavyweight in an alliance with Aragón). On the Avinguda del Paral·lel side of Drassanes is a completely intact section of the 14th- to 15th-century walls—Barcelona's third and final ramparts—that encircled El Raval along the Paral·lel and the Rondas de Sant Pau, Sant Antoni, and Universitat. (Ronda, the term used for the "rounds," or patrols soldiers made atop the defensive walls, became the name for the avenues that replaced them.) The Museu Marítim is filled with vessels, including a spectacular collection of ship models. The life-size reconstruction of the galley of Juan de Austria, commander of the Spanish fleet in the Battle of Lepanto, is perhaps the most impressive display in the museum. Figureheads, nautical gear, early navigational charts, and medieval nautical lore enhance the experience, and headphones and infrared pointers provide a first-rate self-guided tour. Concerts are occasionally held in this acoustic gem. The cafeteria-restaurant Norai, open daily 9 am to 8 pm, offers dining in a setting of medieval elegance, and has a charming terrace. Admission to the museum includes a visit to the schooner Santa Eulàlia, a meticulously restored clipper built in 1918, which is moored nearby at the Port Vell.

    Av. de les Drassanes s/n, 08001, Spain
    93-342–9920

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: €10 (includes admission to Santa Eulàlia clipper); free Sun. after 3, Santa Eulàlia closed Mon.
  • 17. Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya

    Housed in the imposingly domed, towered, frescoed, and columned Palau Nacional, built in 1929 as the centerpiece of the International Exposition, this superb museum was renovated between 1985 and 1992 by Gae Aulenti, architect of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. In 2004, the museum's four holdings (Romanesque, Gothic, the photography collection, and the Cambó Collection—an eclectic trove, including a Goya, donated by Francesc Cambó) were joined by the 19th- and 20th-century collection of Catalan Impressionist and Moderniste painters. With this influx of artistic treasure, the Museu Nacional has become Catalonia's grand central museum. Pride of place goes to the Romanesque exhibition, the world's finest collection of Romanesque frescoes, altarpieces, and wood carvings, most of them rescued from chapels in the Pyrenees during the 1920s to save them from deterioration, theft, and art dealers. Many, such as the famous Cristo de Taüll fresco (from the church of Sant Climent de Taüll in Taüll), have been painstakingly removed from crumbling walls of abandoned sites and remounted on ingenious frames that exactly reproduce the contours of their original settings. The stunning central hall of the museum contains an enormous pillared and frescoed cupola.

    Palau Nacional, 08038, Spain
    93-622–0360

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: From €12 (valid for day of purchase and 1 other day in same month); free Sat. after 3 pm and 1st Sun. of month, Closed Mon.
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  • 18. Museu Picasso

    The Picasso Museum is housed in five adjoining 13th- to 15th-century palaces on Carrer Montcada, a street known for its elegant medieval mansions. Picasso spent his formative years in Barcelona (1895–1904), and although this collection doesn't include a significant number of his most famous paintings, it's strong on his early work, especially showcasing the link between Picasso and Barcelona. The museum opened in 1963 on the suggestion of Picasso's friend Jaume Sabartés, and the initial donation was from the Sabartés collection. Later, Picasso donated his early works, and in 1982 his widow, Jacqueline Roque, added 41 ceramic pieces. Displays include childhood sketches, works from the artist's Rose and Blue periods, and the famous 1950s cubist variations on Velázquez's Las Meninas (in Rooms 12–16). On the lower-floor, the sketches, oils, and schoolboy caricatures from Picasso's early years in A Coruña are perhaps the most fascinating part of the whole museum, showing the facility he seemed to possess from birth. His La Primera Communión (First Communion), painted at the age of 15, gives an idea of his early accomplishments. On the second floor you see the beginnings of the mature Picasso and his Blue Period in Paris. Stop at the terrace café and restaurant for a light Mediterranean meal to break up the day. It is always best to book tickets online ahead of time, especially for visits on the first Sunday of the month and every Thursday after 4 p.m., when admission is free. Online tickets are typically released four days in advance. 

    Montcada 15–19, 08003, Spain
    93-256–3000

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: €12; free Thurs. from 4 pm, and 1st Sun. of month, and with Barcelona Card. Tours €6, Closed Mon., Guided tours of permanent collection (in English) are Sun. at 11
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  • 19. Palau de la Música Catalana

    On Carrer Amadeus Vives, just off Via Laietana, a 10-minute walk from Plaça de Catalunya, is one of the world's most extraordinary music halls, a flamboyant tour de force designed in 1908 by Lluís Domènech i Montaner. Its sponsors, the Orfeó Català musical society, wanted it to celebrate the importance of music in Catalan culture and the life of its ordinary people (as opposed to the Liceu opera house, with its Castilian-speaking, monarchist, upper-class patrons, and its music from elsewhere), but the Palau turned out to be anything but commonplace. It and the Liceu were, for many decades, opposing crosstown forces in Barcelona's musical as well as philosophical discourse. If you can't fit a performance into your itinerary, you owe it to yourself to at least take a tour of this amazing building. The exterior is a remarkable riot of color and form. The Miquel Blay sculptural group over the corner of Amadeu Vives and Sant Pere Més Alt is a hymn in stone to Catalonia's popular traditions, with hardly a note left unsung: St. George the dragon-slayer (at the top), women and children at play and work, fishermen with oars over their shoulders—a panoply of everyday life. Inside, the decor of the Palau assaults your senses before the first note of music is ever played. Wagner's Valkyries burst from the right side of the stage over a heavy-browed bust of Beethoven; Catalonia's popular music is represented by the graceful maidens of Lluís Millet's song Flors de Maig (Flowers of May) on the left. Overhead, an inverted stained-glass cupola seems to channel the divine gift of music straight from heaven. Painted rosettes and giant peacock feathers adorn the walls and columns, and, across the entire back wall of the stage, is a relief of muse-like Art Nouveau musicians in costume. The visuals alone make music sound different here, be it a chamber orchestra, a renowned piano soloist, a gospel choir, or an Afro-Cuban combo. A variety of tours are available. The standard guided tour in English takes place at 10 am and 3 pm, and you can add a 20-minute live piano or organ recital on select dates (check availability and book online in advance). Self-guided audio tours, downloaded to your personal device, are €14.

    Palau de la Música 4–6, 08003, Spain
    93-295–7200

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: Self-guided audio tour €16
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  • 20. Palau Güell

    Gaudí built this mansion in 1886–90 for textile baron Count Eusebi de Güell Bacigalupi, his most important patron. (The prominent four bars of the senyera, the banner of Catalunya, on the facade between the parabolic arches of the entrance attest to the nationalist fervor the two men shared.) Gaudí's principal obsession in this project was to find a way to illuminate this seven-story house, hemmed in as it is by other buildings in the cramped quarters of El Raval. The dark facade is a dramatic foil for the brilliance of the inside, where spear-shape Art Nouveau columns frame the windows, rising to support a series of detailed and elaborately carved wood ceilings. The basement stables are famous for the "fungiform" (mushroom-like) columns carrying the weight of the whole building. Note Gaudí's signature parabolic arches between the columns and the way the arches meet overhead, forming a canopy of palm fronds. (The beauty of the construction was probably little consolation to the political prisoners held here during the 1936–39 Civil War.) The patio where the horses were groomed receives light through a skylight, one of many devices Gaudí used to brighten the space. Don't miss the figures of the faithful hounds, with the rings in their mouths for hitching horses, or the wooden bricks laid down in lieu of cobblestones in the entryway upstairs and on the ramp down to the basement grooming area, to deaden the sound of horses' hooves. Upstairs are three successive receiving rooms; the wooden ceilings are progressively more spectacular in the complexity of their richly molded floral motifs. The room farthest in has a jalousie in the balcony: a double grate through which Güell was able to observe—and eavesdrop on—his arriving guests. The main hall, with the three-story-tall tower reaching up above the roof, was for parties, dances, and receptions. Musicians played from the balcony; the overhead balcony window was for the principal singer. Double doors enclose a chapel of hammered copper with retractable prie-dieu; around the corner is a small organ, the flutes in rectangular tubes climbing the central shaft of the building. The dining room is dominated by a beautiful mahogany banquet table seating 10, an Art Nouveau fireplace in the shape of a deeply curving horseshoe arch, and walls with floral and animal motifs. From the outside rear terrace, the polished Garraf marble of the main part of the house is exposed; the brick servants' quarters are on the left. The passageway built toward La Rambla was all that came of a plan to buy an intervening property and connect three houses into one grand structure, a scheme that never materialized. Gaudí is most himself on the roof, where his playful, polychrome ceramic chimneys seem like preludes to later works like the Park Güell and La Pedrera. Look for the flying-bat weather vane over the main chimney, a reference to the Catalan king Jaume I, who brought the house of Aragón to its 13th-century imperial apogee in the Mediterranean. Jaume I's affinity for bats is said to have stemmed from his Mallorca campaign, when, according to one version, he was awakened by a fluttering rat penat (literally, "condemned mouse") in time to stave off a Moorish night attack.

    Nou de la Rambla 3–5, 08001, Spain
    93-472–5775

    Sight Details

    Rate Includes: €12; free 1st Sun. of month for tickets purchased online, Closed Mon., Guided tours (1 hr) in English Sat. at 10:30 am at no additional cost
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