1027 Best Sights in Spain

Named for the terrissaires (earthenware potters) who worked here making escudellas (bowls or stew pots), this colorful loop is an interesting subtrip off La Rambla. Go left at Plaça del Teatre and you'll pass the landmark Grill Room at No. 8, an Art Nouveau saloon with graceful wooden decor and an ornate oak bar; next is La Fonda Escudellers, another lovely, glass- and stone-encased dining emporium. (Alas, the food is not especially good at either.)

At Nos. 23–25 is Barcelona's most comprehensive ceramics display, Art Escudellers. Farther down, on the right, is Los Caracoles, once among the most traditional of Barcelona's restaurants and now mainly the choice of tourists with deep pockets. Still, the bar and the walk-through kitchen on the way in are picturesque, as are the dining rooms and the warren of little stairways between them. Another 100 yards down Carrer Escudellers is Plaça George Orwell, named for the author of Homage to Catalonia, a space created to bring light and air into this somewhat sketchy neighborhood. The little flea market that hums along on Saturday is a great place to browse.

Take a right on the narrow Carrer de la Carabassa—a street best known in days past for its houses of ill fame, and one of the few remaining streets in the city still entirely paved with cobblestones. It is arched over with two graceful bridges that once connected the houses with their adjacent gardens. At the end of the street, looming atop her own basilica, is Nostra Senyora de la Mercè (Our Lady of Mercy). This giant representation of Barcelona's patron saint is a 20th-century (1940) addition to the 18th-century Església de la Mercè; the view of La Mercè gleaming in the sunlight, babe in arms, is one of the Barcelona waterfront's most impressive sights.

As you arrive at Carrer Ample, note the 15th-century door with a winged Sant Miquel Archangel delivering a backhand blow to a scaly Lucifer. It's from the Sant Miquel church, formerly part of City Hall, torn down in the early 19th century. From the Mercè, a walk out Carrer Ample (to the right) leads back to the bottom of La Rambla.

Named for the weavers and blanket makers to whom this street belonged in medieval times, Carrer Flassaders is best approached from Carrer Montcada, at El Xampanyet, one of La Ribera's most popular bars for tapas and cava. Duck into the short, dark Carrer Arc de Sant Vicenç. At the end, you'll find yourself face-to-face with La Seca, what used to be the Royal Mint (officially, the Reial Fàbrica de la Moneda de la Corona d'Aragó), where money was manufactured until the mid-19th century. Coins bearing the inscription, in Castilian, "Principado de Cataluña" (Principality of Catalonia) were made here as late as 1836.

Turn left on Carrer de la Seca to Carrer de la Cirera. Overhead to the left is the image of Santa Maria de Cervelló, one of the patron saints of the Catalan fleet, on the back of the Palau Cervelló on Carrer Montcada. Turn right on Carrer de la Cirera, and arrive at the corner of Carrer dels Flassaders. Walk left past several shops. Wander down Flassaders through a gauntlet of elegant clothing, furnishings, and jewelry design boutiques, and you'll pass the main entry to Escenari Joan Brossa at No. 40, with the gigantic Bourbon coat of arms over the imposing archway.

Look up to your right at the corner of the gated Carrer de les Mosques, famous as Barcelona's narrowest street. The mustachioed countenance peering down at you was once a medieval advertisement for a brothel. Pasteleria Hofmann, at No. 44, is the excellent pastry shop (don't pass up the mascarpone croissants) of famous Barcelona chef, the late Mey Hofmann, whose cooking school is on nearby Carrer Argenteria. A right on Passeig del Born will take you back to Santa Maria del Mar.

Just steps from La Rambla, Carrer Petritxol is one of Barcelona's most popular streets. Lined with art galleries, xocolaterías (chocolate shops), and stationers, this narrow passageway dates from the 15th century, when it was used as a shortcut through the backyard of a local property owner.

Working up Petritxol from Plaça del Pi, stop to admire the late-17th-century sgraffito design (mural ornamentation made by scratching away a plaster surface), some of the city's best, on the facade over the Ganiveteria Roca knife store, the place for cutlery in Barcelona. Next on the right, at Petritxol 2 is the 200-year-old Dulcinea, with a portrait of the great Catalan playwright Àngel Guimerà (1847–1924) over the fireplace. Drop in for the house specialty, the suizo ("Swiss" hot chocolate and whipped cream). 

Note the plaque to Àngel Guimerà over No. 4 and Sala Parès at No. 5, founded in 1840, the dean of Barcelona's art galleries, where major figures like Isidre Nonell, Santiago Rusiñol, and Picasso have shown their work, and its affiliated Galeria Trama, which shows more contemporary work. Look carefully at the "curtains" carved into the wooden door at No. 11 and the floral ornamentation around the edges of the ceiling inside; the store is Granja la Pallaresa, yet another enclave of chocolate and ensaimada (a light-looking but deadly sweet Mallorcan pastry, with confectioner's sugar dusted on top).

The plain facade of this 15th-century Carthusian monastery, some 3 km (2 miles) outside the historic center, belies a richly decorated interior. There's an altarpiece by Gil de Siloe that is said to be gilded with the first gold plundered in the Americas.

Lined with low-rises and plenty of greenery, this urban beach is between Benalmádena and Fuengirola. One of the Costa del Sol's Blue Flag holders (awarded to the cleanest beaches with the best facilities), the 1¼-km (¾-mile) beach has yellow sand and safe swimming conditions, which make it very popular with families. Beach bars rent lounge chairs and umbrellas, and there's regular live music in the summer. Playa Carvajal is packed throughout July and August and most summer weekends, but at any other time this beach is quite quiet. The Benalmádena end has a seafront promenade and street parking, and the Carvajal train station (on the Fuengirola–Málaga line) is just a few yards from the beach. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards (mid-June–mid-September); parking (no fee); showers; toilets; water sports. Best for: sunrise; swimming.

The neo-Gothic Casa Amatller was built by Josep Puig i Cadafalch in 1900, when the architect was 33 years old. Eighteen years younger than Domènech i Montaner and 15 years younger than Gaudí, Puig i Cadafalch was one of the leading statesmen of his generation, once the mayor of Barcelona, and in 1917, president of Catalonia's first home-rule government since 1714. Puig i Cadafalch's architectural historicism sought to recover Catalonia's proud past, in combination with eclectic elements from Flemish and Dutch architectural motifs. Note the Eusebi Arnau sculptures—especially his St. George and the Dragon, and the figures of a drummer with his dancing bear. The flowing-haired "Princesa" is thought to be Amatller's daughter; the animals above the motif are depicted pouring chocolate, a reference to the source of the Amatller family fortune. The first-floor apartment, where the Amatller family lived, is a museum, with original furniture and decor; self-guided tours are available with an English audio guide. A quick visit will give you a sense of what the rest of the building is like and a chance to buy some chocolate de la casa at the boutique.

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.

This Gaudí masterpiece, which housed a bank until 2017, is now an excellent museum dedicated to the Moderniste architect. Under the conical spires and behind the squamous facade are more than 5,000 works of art spanning eight centuries by such renowned masters as Sorolla, Madrazo, Gutiérrez, and Solana. Given that this is the largest of Gaudí's buildings to be opened as a museum, it's worth the extra few euros for a guided tour in English.

Like something out of an amusement park, this former umbrella shop was whimsically designed (assembled is more like it) by Josep Vilaseca in 1885. A Chinese dragon with a parasol, Egyptian balconies and galleries, and a Peking lantern all reflect the Eastern style that was very much in vogue at the time of the Universal Exposition of 1888. Now housing a branch office of the Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Artentaria (BBVA), this prankster of a building is much in keeping with Art Nouveau's eclectic playfulness, though it has never been taken very seriously as an expression of Modernisme and is generally omitted from most studies of Art Nouveau architecture.

This exquisite but more conventional town house (for Gaudí, anyway) was the architect's first commission in the Eixample (the second was the dragon-like Casa Batlló, and the third, and last—he was never asked to do another—was the stone quarry–esque Casa Milà). Peaked with baroque scroll gables over the unadorned (no ceramics, no color, no sculpted ripples) Montjuïc sandstone facade, Casa Calvet compensates for its structural conservatism with its Moderniste details, from the door handles to the benches, chairs, vestibule, and spectacular glass-and-wood elevator. Built between 1898 and 1900 for the textile baron Pere Calvet, the house includes symbolic elements on the facade, ranging from the owner's stylized letter "C" over the door to the cypress, symbol of hospitality, above. The wild mushrooms on the main (second) floor reflect Pere Calvet's (and perhaps Gaudí's) passion for mycology, while the busts at the top of the facade represent St. Peter, the owner's patron saint, and St. Genis of Arles and St. Genis of Rome, patron saints of Vilassar, the Calvet family's hometown in the coastal Maresme north of Barcelona. Note that the only part of the building accessible to visitors is the ground-floor China Crown restaurant, originally the suite of offices for Calvet's textile company, with its exuberant Moderniste decor.

Located at the bottom of Gràcia, this often overlooked Moderniste house (not open to the public) is worth stopping by to view the exterior—especially from the Carrer de Còrsega side of the building, at the corner of Carrer de Pau Claris. Built in 1911, the Salvador Valeri i Pupurull creation is one of Barcelona's most interesting Moderniste houses, with its undulating balconies, Gaudí-on-steroids stone arches, and polychrome ceramic-tiled facade.

The interior of this 15th-century building, home of the Municipal Archives (upstairs), has superb views of the remains of the 4th-century Roman watchtowers and walls. Look at the Montjuïc sandstone carefully, and you will see blocks taken from other buildings carved and beveled into decorative shapes, proof of the haste of the Romans to fortify the site as the Visigoths approached from the north, when the Pax Romana collapsed. The marble letter box by the front entrance was designed in 1895 by Lluís Domènech i Montaner for the Lawyer's Professional Association; as the story goes, it was meant to symbolize, in the images of the doves, the lofty flight to the heights of justice and, in the images of the turtles, the plodding pace of administrative procedures. In the center of the lovely courtyard here, across from the Santa Llúcia chapel, is a fountain; on the day of Corpus Christi in June the fountain impressively supports l'ou com balla, or "the dancing egg," a Barcelona tradition in which eggs are set to bobbing atop jets of water in various places around the city.

The last Barceloneta house left standing in its original 1761 two-story iteration, it’s fitting that CB1761 (its catchy moniker) is now used as an exhibition space to honor memories of the neighborhood’s past. The regularly changing photographic displays encompass social, political and artistic movements; recent retrospectives have included a photo-story of Picasso’s haunts in Barceloneta, and portraits of the (largely unseen) women integral to Barceloneta’s early-20th-century fishing industry. 

This house occupies what were once the grounds and buildings of a 14th-century Carthusian convent—though the convent itself is long gone. The present building dates to 1749; it was renovated in 1929 in Catalan Moderniste style, abandoned for a time, and then remodeled in 1980 as part of a large-scale urban improvement project for El Raval, with much of the impressive tile work, brick vaulted arches and stone pillars preserved intact. It now houses the Centre d'Estudis i Recursos Culturals de la Diputació (Center for Cultural Studies and Resources of the Provincial Council) and the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB: the Centre for Contemporary Culture), in the Pati Manning Espai Cultural—a two-story cloister around a central courtyard (pati means patio or courtyard) with lovely Tuscan arches. The Pati Manning (named for a benefactor of the one-time almshouse) includes a library, a lecture hall and auditorium, and exhibition galleries, and organizes a wide range of cultural and artistic initiatives.

At the remains of the Casa de la Fortuna, which belonged to a wealthy family of the 1st century BC, the most attractive feature is the fresco painted on the dining-room walls. It's to the south of the tourist office, down the main road.

With its charming ivy-covered and palm-shaded courtyard, this property was once a vocational school and a home for the children of the destitute. Founded in 1581 by theologian Don Diego Pérez de Valdivia, it functioned throughout the 19th and much of the 20th century as an orphanage for girls. The excellent bookstore La Central del Raval, next door at Carrer Elisabets 6, was formerly the institution's chapel. Around the corner (or through the bookstore) on Carrer dels Ramelleres at No. 17, a ring of wood in the wall just above waist level is all that remains of the ancient torno, or turntable, standard in early orphanages and cloistered convents. Alms, groceries, and unwanted babies alike were placed in this opening slot, to be spun anonymously into the hands of the convent staff. The building now houses an archive of historical documents—the oldest of which date to the 14th century.

This extraordinary apartment house crowned with an enormous yellow butterfly (papallona) made of trencadís (broken ceramic chips used by the Modernistes to add color to curved surfaces) was built in 1912 by Josep Graner i Prat. Next to Plaça de Espanya, directly overlooking the Arenes de Barcelona (the former bullring, now a multilevel shopping mall), the building displays lines of a routine, late-19th-century design—that is, until you reach the top of the facade.

Laguardia's oldest civil structure, the 15th-century Casa de la Primicia is where tithes of fresh fruit were collected in medieval times. Visit the restored underground bodega, where tours culminate in a range of wine tastings, one of which samples four local varietals (Tempranillo, Graciano, Mazuelo, and Garnacha).

Just adjacent to the church of Santa Maria del Pi is the seat of the 14th-century religious brotherhood charged with the preparation of the last rites, spiritual comfort, and burial of criminals condemned to death. In the famous Ramon Casas painting Garrote Vil (1894)—depicting the execution of the anarchist who bombed the Liceu Opera House (the painting can be seen in Barcelona's Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya)—the penitent monks dressed in long black cassocks and conical headgear are from this order, the Casa de la Congregació de la Puríssima Sang (House of the Congregation of the Purest Blood). The house was purportedly built in 1542 (the historical evidence is not clear) and renovated in 1613 and 1789.

This house, whose facade is covered in scallop shell carvings, was built around 1500 for Dr. Rodrigo Maldonado de Talavera, a chancellor of the Order of St. James, whose symbol is the shell. Among the playful plateresque details are the lions over the main entrance, engaged in a fearful tug-of-war with the Talavera crest. The interior has been converted into a public library. Duck into the charming courtyard, which has an intricately carved upper balustrade that imitates basketwork.

Also known as Casa Terrades for the family that owned the house and commissioned Puig i Cadafalch to build it, this extraordinary cluster of six conical towers ending in impossibly sharp needles is another of Puig i Cadafalch's inspirations, this one rooted in the Gothic architecture of northern European countries. One of the few freestanding Eixample buildings, visible from 360 degrees, this ersatz Bavarian or Danish castle in downtown Barcelona is composed entirely of private apartments, some of them built into the conical towers themselves on three circular levels, connected by spiral stairways. Casa de les Punxes currently functions as a co-working space and is not open to visitors.

This 15th-century building houses the cheerful Museo Provincial de Ávila, full of local archaeology and folklore. Part of the museum's collection is housed in the adjacent Romanesque temple of San Tomé el Viejo, a few minutes' walk east of the cathedral apse.

Originally built in 1494 for the Pisa family, the claim to fame of this house is its relationship to San Juan de Dios, who came to Granada in 1538 and founded a charity hospital to take care of the poor. Befriended by the Pisa family, he was taken into their home when he fell ill in February 1550. A month later, he died there, at the age of 55. Since that time, devotees of the saint have traveled from around the world to this house with a stone Gothic facade, now run by the Hospital Order of St. John. Inside are numerous pieces of jewelry, furniture, priceless religious works of art, and an extensive collection of paintings and sculptures depicting St. John.

This 16th-century palace, adorned with the coat of arms of the Grana Venegas family who owned it, was named House of the Shots for the musket barrels that protrude from its facade. The stairs to the upper-floor displays are flanked by portraits of grim Spanish royals, from Fernando and Isabel to Felipe IV. The highlight is the carved wooden ceiling in the Cuadra Dorada (Hall of Gold), adorned with gilded lettering and portraits of royals and knights. Old lithographs, engravings, and photographs show life in Granada in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

This private museum opposite the synagogue is dedicated to the culture of Sephardic Jews in the Mediterranean. Providing a very personal insight, the museum's director leads visitors through the five rooms of the 14th-century house, where displays cover Sephardic domestic life, music, festivities, the history of Córdoba's Jewish Quarter, and finally a collection of contemporary paintings of the women of al-Andalus (\"al-Andalus\" is Arabic for \"Land of the West\").

This striking Renaissance palace, built by the wealthy Paniagua family in the 17th century, isn't open to the public, but it's worth a drive-by to see the outside. The ornate corner balcony, supported by neoclassical and Corinthian columns, is an excellent example of Spanish ironwork from that era.

Located in the central paseo—where the Plaza del Pópulo (or Plaza de los Leones) and Plaza de la Constitución (or Plaza del Mercado Viejo) merge to form a cobblestone square—this graceful town house was built around 1530. The first Mass of the Reconquest was supposedly celebrated on its curved balcony; it now houses Baeza's tourist office.

This less radical example of Eixample Art Nouveau architecture, now an apartment building, is interesting for its balconies and curved lines on the facade, for its handsome doors and vestibule, and for the lovely etched designs on the glass of the entryway. Built by and for the architect Domènech i Estapà in 1908–09, eight years before his death, this building represents a more conservative interpretation of the aesthetic canons of the epoch, revealing the architect's hostility to the Art Nouveau movement. Domènech i Estapà built more civil projects than any other architect of his time (Reial Acadèmia de Cièncias y Artes, Palacio de Justicia, Sociedad Catalana de Gas y Electricidad, Hospital Clínico, Observatorio Fabra) and was the creator of the Carcel Modelo (Model Prison), considered a state-of-the-art example of penitentiary design when it was built in 1913.

Gaudí disciple Joan Rubió i Bellver built this extraordinary house, known as El Xalet (The Chalet), for the Golferichs family when he was only 30. The rambling wooden eaves and gables of the exterior enclose a cozy and comfortable dark-wood-lined interior with a pronounced verticality. The top floor, with its rich wood beams and cerulean walls, is often used for intimate concerts; the ground floor exhibits paintings and photographs. The building serves now as the quarters of the Golferichs Centre Civic, which offers local residents a range of conferences and discussions, exhibitions and adult education courses, and organizes various thematic walking tours of the city.

This graceful Puig i Cadafalch building constructed in 1901 was the former seat of the Obra Social "la Caixa," a deep-pocketed, far-reaching cultural and social welfare organization funded by Spain's major (and most civic-minded) savings bank. It now houses the foundation's Espai Caixa cultural center, organizing a range of conferences, discussion forums, and presentations on current social and political issues. Look for the Eusebi Arnau sculptures over the door depicting, somewhat cryptically, a man mounted on a donkey and another on a bicycle, reminiscent of the similar Arnau sculptures on the facade of Puig i Cadafalch's Casa Amatller on Passeig de Gràcia.