One of the most easily recognisable landmarks on Barcelona’s iconic Las Ramblas boulevard, Casa Bruno Cuadros is located half-way between Plaça de Catalunya and the Columbus Monument. Better known as The Umbrella House (Catalan: Casa dels Paraigües) due to the brightly coloured umbrellas which decorate the façade. The building dates back to 1858 and was…
Category: Attractions
Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site: El Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau
A Short walk from the Sagrada Familia, the Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau is one of Barcelona’s most interesting architectural and historical attractions. Built at the start of the 20th century, the site comprises twenty-seven Art Nouveau buildings and was a working hospital as recently as 2009. In 2014, after almost five years of extensive…
Barcelona Central Post Office
Passeig de Colom, the avenue which runs from the Columbus monument towards the Parc de la Ciutadella, is flanked by a series of elegant buildings dating back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. One of the most interesting of them is the Central Post Office which was designed by Josep Goday i Casals and…
The 10 Most Emblematic Skyscrapers in Barcelona
The earliest skyscrapers were built in Chicago and New York during the second half of the 19th century and were between 10 and 20 storeys high. Technological advances during the 20th century meant that buildings could grow ever taller and modern skyscrapers are usually more than 100m and often reach heights in excess of 150m. The…
Christopher Columbus Monument and Viewpoint
The Columbus Monument Barcelona’s Columbus Monument (Catalan: Mirador de Colom) was erected in 1888 for the Universal Exposition. The 60m high iron column is topped by a bronze statue of the famous Italian explorer who is portrayed holding nautical charts and pointing out to sea. Although the monument is a tribute to the man who discovered…
A Room Where it Always Rains by Juan Muñoz
In preparation for the Olympic Games of 1992, Barcelona’s seafront and port were transformed from a neglected industrial area into one of the most attractive waterfronts in Europe. The whole area was given a facelift and a new marina was built, as well as apartment buildings to house the athletes. The old railway tracks that…
Las Arenas – Bullring Turned Shopping Centre and Viewpoint
The Las Arenas de Barcelona bullring was inaugurated in 1900 and was the second of 3 bullfighting rings built in Barcelona. Designed by Catalan architect August Font i Carreras, the plaza had a capacity for nearly 15,000 spectators. During the 1970s, as bullfighting became less popular, the arena faced declining attendance and finally closed in…
Antoni Llena’s Chicken Wire Tribute to Castellers
Located in Plaça de Sant Miquel behind Barcelona’s City Hall, this unusual 26.5m high stainless steel tower by Antoni Llena i Font was unveiled in 2012 during the Feast of Santa Eulalia. The statue is titled Homenatge als Castellers and is a tribute to the emblematic human towers which are a traditional feature of public…
Marc by Robert Llimós
Marc is one of a pair of nearly identical statues by Robert Llimós portraying a colourful, genderless, neo-expressionist human figure holding a large picture frame which it is looking through. The sculpture was inaugurated in 1997 and it’s title is a play on words. Marc means frame in Catalan and the statue is dedicated to the artist’s…
David and Goliath Sculptures in Barcelona
Who isn’t familiar with the story of David and Goliath? The epic tale of a young shepherd boy who, armed with only a slingshot and a few stones, killed a fearsome giant and went on to become king of Israel. Over the centuries the story has become a synonym for the struggle between good and…
Monument to Ramon Berenguer the Great
This life size bronze equestrian statue of Ramon Berenguer III was sculpted by Frederic Marès and inaugerated in 1950. Located in Plaça Ramon Berenguer el Gran, the monument is a replica of an earlier statue which was created by Josep Llimona for the Barcelona Universal Exposition of 1888. The Count, who ruled Barcelona from 1097…
Homage to the Blanquerna School
This large bronze statue of two children is the work of Catalan artist Núria Tortras. The statue, which portrays a girl reading and a boy playing, is located on the pavement opposite Plaça de Blanquerna and was inaugurated in 1998. The Blanquerna School (Mutua Escolar Blanquerna) was founded in 1923 and used the then revolutionary…
The Shoe Museum
Possibly Barcelona’s smallest museum, El Museu del Calçat (Literally: the footware museum) occupies 2 small rooms in a 16th century renaissance style building which was previously the headquarters of the Shoemakers Guild. The museum houses a small collection of shoes from around the world as well as historic documents and other articles related to shoemaking.…
The World Begins With Every Kiss (The Kiss Mural)
Approaching the Kiss of Freedom mural in Plaça d’Isidre Nonell you’d be forgiven for assuming it’s a large graffiti. As you get closer, you’ll realise that it is, in fact, a mosaic made up of thousands of tiny ceramic tiles. Each individual tile is printed with a photo of a person, a place, a moment,…
Santa Maria del Mar – Barcelona’s Cathedral of the Sea
The Basilica de Santa Maria del Mar was built during the 14th century on a site which was once occupied by a Roman Amphitheatre. The church took 55 years to build and is a rare example of pure Catalan Gothic architecture (most churches and cathedrals are a combination of styles). The simplicity of design and…
Discover the Awesome Graffiti and Street Art of Poblenou
Over the last few years Barcelona’s once industrial Poblenou neighbourhood has begun a steady transformation from area full of disused factories to one of hi-tech office blocks, stylish hotels and modern apartment buildings. Many of the abandoned factories have been torn down. Some have been restored and converted into offices. Others stand derelict awaiting redevelopment, trapped in a kind…
Monument to Antoni Viladomat i Manalt
This bronze statue of Antoni Viladomat I Manalt by Catalan artist Torquat Tasso was one of a series of eight monuments depicting Catalan heroes inaugurated in 1886. In 1959 most of the statues were melted down and used to make a replacement for the statue of Mare de Déu de la Mercè, which tops the…
Monument to Doctor Bartomeu Robert
Plaça de Tetuan is a tiny green oasis on Gran Via in Barcelona’s Eixample district. The small tree-lined plaza is dominated by a 12m high Art Nouveau monument to Doctor Bartomeu Robert built in 1904 by Josep Llimona. The monument took 6 years to complete and was originally installed in Plaça de la Universitat. After the Spanish…
La Monumental – Bullring and Bullfighting Museum
The Plaza de Toros Monumental was built in 1914 and is the world’s only Art-Nouveau bullring. It was the last active bullring in Catalonia and finally closed in 2011 when bullfighting was banned by the Parliament of Catalonia. The building now houses a small bullfighting museum. Visiting the La Monumental Bullring I’ve never been to a…
Barcelona Design Museum – DHUB
The new Barcelona Design Museum opened during December 2014. The museum explores the role of design in our daily lives through 4 permanent exhibitions which were previously housed in the Museum of Decorative Arts, the Ceramics Museum, the Barcelona Textile Museum and the Cabinet of Graphic Arts. The museum occupies 4 floors of the futuristic…
Plaça d’Espanya
Plaça d’Espanya was built for the 1929 International Exhibition and was originally flanked by purpose-built hotels designed to house people visiting the exhibition. Only one of the hotels remains and nowadays the square is basically a large roundabout with an impressive fountain in the middle and magnificent views of the Palau Nacional and Montjuïc. The…
Where to See Christmas Nativity Scenes in Barcelona in 2025
Plaça de Sant Jaume If you’re in Barcelona at Christmas time you shouldn’t miss the large nativity scene in Plaça de Sant Jaume. The nativity occupies about a quarter of the plaza and the design changes every year. The nativity scene shown below is from 2014 and was a recreation of the Roman city of Barcino.…
The Dark History of Plaça de Sant Felip Neri
When I took this photo, I was planning on writing an article explaining how the bullet-scarred walls of the Església de Sant Felip Neri church are a monument to the people executed here by Franco’s troops during the Spanish Civil War. I’m not entirely sure where I got that version of events from, but it…
El Fossar de les Moreres
In the heart of the Ribera district, the Fossar de Les Moreres is a sombre reminder of Barcelona’s turbulent history. The site has been a burial ground since medieval times and in 1714 citizens who died defending the city during the siege of Barcelona were buried here in a mass grave. Because of this the…
The Encants Vells Flea Market
Barcelona’s Encants Vells, also known as the Mercat de Bellcaire, is one of the oldest flea markets in Europe and dates back to the 14th Century. In 2013 Els Encants relocated to a stunning new purpose built 3 story structure opposite the Agbar Tower. The emblematic mirrored canopy houses 500 stalls; a mixture of junk shop, antiques…
Monument to Doctor Trueta
Josep Trueta Raspall was born in the Poblenou neighbourhood of Barcelona in 1897. He studied medicine at the University of Barcelona and in 1921 started working as an assistant surgeon in the Hospital de la Santa Creus I Sant Pau. By the onset of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 Dr. Trueta had already started…
Barcelona Cable Cars
Barcelona has two cable cars that offer visitors fantastic aerial views of the city and provide easy access to the castle and other attractions on Montjuïc. Barcelona Port Cable Car The Transbordador Aeri del Port (Port Cable Car) was built for the 1929 Barcelona Universal Exposition and links the Barceloneta beach to Montjuïc. The red…
Statue of Pau Claris
This bronze statue of Pau Claris was inaugurated in 1880 and originally stood on what is now Via Laietana. It was withdrawn from public display during the Spanish Civil War, as were other monuments to famous Catalan figures such as Dr Bartomeu Robert and Rafael Casanova. In 1977 the statues were restored and reinstated in…
Sir Winston Churchill Monument
Sir Winston Churchill and Barcelona Winston Churchill was undoubtedly one of the most important figures of the 20th Century. His leadership inspired the British people to stand up for freedom during the second world war. Hitler backed Franco and used the Spanish Civil War to perfect techniques which were later used by the Nazis in…
Fernando Botero’s Fat Animal Sculptures
Two of Barcelona’s most photographed sculptures bear the unmistakable hallmark of Colombian artist Fernando Botero. According to Wikipedia the artist’s trademark style is called Boterism and depicts people and animals in “exaggerated volume”. The Cat from the Raval Known locally as either “El Gato del Raval” or “El Gato de Botero” this over-nourished alley-cat was…