Barcelona’s City Hall is an impressive example of Gothic architecture that has served as the local government’s headquarters since its construction in 1369. Like many other buildings in Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, the city hall has been subject to various modifications and additions. However, despite all the changes, parts of the interior have remained unchanged since…
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Casa de l’Ardiaca: The Archdeacon’s House
The Casa de l’Ardiaca is a small Gothic building tucked away in plain sight, near the main entrance to Barcelona Cathedral. The building, which is currently home to the city’s historic archive, dates back to the twelfth century when it served as the residence of the archdeacon, a high-ranking member of the clergy. Despite being…
Exploring Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter: A Perfect Half-day Itinerary
With over two thousand years of history, Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter is a labyrinth of narrow streets and striking Gothic architecture which dates back to the Middle Ages and the times of the Roman Empire. Located between Plaça de Catalunya and the Port Vell Harbour, the Gothic Quarter is the heart of the Old City and…
Pont de Mühlberg: Barcelona’s Love Lock Bridge
Love locks have become a common sight in European cities since the early 2000s, after the release of the Italian film Ho Voglia di Te (English: I Want You). In the movie, two lovers inscribed their names on a padlock and attached it to a bridge in Rome. Since then, the tradition has spread, and…
Discovering the Public Art on Barcelona’s Waterfront (walking itinerary & map)
Barcelona is renowned for its public art, and the city’s many parks and plazas are replete with monuments ranging from traditional statues paying homage to people and events of the past to intriguing contemporary pieces by international and local artists. But it’s not just the parks and plazas which are full of art. Wherever you…
Roman Scales by Jannis Kounellis
One of a series of eight sculptures which were installed in public spaces in the run-up to the Barcelona Olympics of 1992, Roman Balance, or Balança romana in Catalan, by Greek artist Jannis Kounellis is a reminder of Barcelona’s seafaring and industrial heritage. The statue consists of seven large cast iron balance pans, each loaded…
MNAC: The National Art Museum of Catalunya (Visitors guide & tickets)
The National Art Museum of Catalunya, also known as MNAC, is located in the Palau Nacional near the Magic Fountain on Montjuïc. The museum boasts an impressive art collection spanning over a thousand years, tracing the development of art in Catalonia. The museum is famous for its impressive collection of Romanesque murals from the 11th…
Easter in Barcelona 2024: Processions, Traditions & Best Things To Do
Easter, or Semana Santa as it’s known locally, is Spain’s most important religious festival. The celebrations, which date back to the sixteenth century, include sombre processions with ornate floats commemorating Jesus Christ’s arrival in Jerusalem, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. The most famous Easter Week celebrations take place in Andalucia, in southern Spain. However, cities throughout…
The Three Hills Walk (Urban hiking in Barcelona)
The Three Hills Walk is a popular hiking trail in Barcelona which visits the summits of three hills: El Turó de la Rovira, El Carmel and La Crueta del Coll. There are multiple variations of the route that follow footpaths and tracks through parks in the neighbourhoods of Gràcia, El Carmel, and Horta-Guinardo. The lengthier…
The Fundació Joan Miró Art Museum on Montjuïc (Visitors guide & tips)
The Joan Miró Foundation is a museum of modern art that exhibits the works of Barcelona-born artist Joan Miró. The museum opened its doors in 1975 and was designed in collaboration between Miró and architect Josep Lluís Sert. In addition to an extensive collection of Miró’s work, the museum also contains exhibits by other contemporary…
From Orwell to ‘Tripi’: The History of Barcelona’s Plaça de George Orwell
Tucked away in the labyrinthine heart of Barcelona’s Gothic Quarter, Plaça de George Orwell was created in 1989, when an entire block of housing was torn down. The creation of this, and other similar plazas, was conceived as a way of opening up the Gothic Quarter and presumably went hand in hand with the generalized…
CCCB: Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona
The Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, or CCCB for short, is contemporary arts centre in Barcelona’s Raval neighbourhood. The centre opened in 1995 in a historic building which was once an almshouse and houses three main exhibition areas, as well as an auditorium, a bookstore, an arts cinema and a digital archive, all of…
How to Get to Sitges from Barcelona Airport
Sitges is a beach town located thirty-five kilometres south of Barcelona. Once a sleepy fishing village, the picturesque narrow streets of the old town, sandy beaches and lively nightlife have been attracting tourists since the nineteenth century. If you’re flying into Barcelona and planning to spend a few days in Sitges, you might be wondering…
How to Travel from Barcelona Airport to the Costa Brava
The Costa Brava, or Wild Coast, is the stretch of coastline which runs from Blanes, sixty kilometres northeast of Barcelona, to the French border. The area is known for its good weather, good food and pristine sandy beaches, and is one of the most popular holiday destinations in Spain. The Costa Brava is served by…
Fundació Antoni Tàpies (Visitors guide, tickets & tips)
Situated in an impressive Art Nouveau building in central Barcelona, the Antoni Tàpies Foundation was inaugurated in 1984 to promote modern and contemporary art. The museum houses temporary exhibitions by Antoni Tàpies and other artists and an extensive library of books and journals dedicated to art. On the roof, there are two large sculptures, which…
Bus & Coach Services from Barcelona Airport (Both terminals, all destinations)
Every year, approximately fifty million passengers pass through Barcelona Airport. While most of them head straight to the city centre, the airport also serves as an entry point for other popular destinations such as Sitges, Girona and the Costa Brava. Many travellers who arrive at Barcelona Airport continue their journey to their final destination by…
Vic Travel Guide: What to See and Do in Vic
Located seventy kilometres inland from Barcelona, with a population of only 50,000, Vic is a charming city that boasts one of the largest arcaded plazas in Spain. The plaza is the heart of Vic’s historic quarter, which features a magnificent medieval cathedral and a smaller Roman temple dating back to the second century. The plaza…
Free Train Travel in Barcelona During 2023 With The “ABONO RECURRENT” Ticket
In September 2022, to persuade more commuters to start using trains, the Spanish Government introduced two new train passes aimed at frequent travellers. The scheme was extended into 2023 and is now expected to run until the end of the year. The idea behind the scheme is that every four months, commuters pay a small…
Hiking the Camí Ral: The Old Medieval Road from Vic to Olot
The Camí Ral is an old Medieval road connecting the cities of Vic and Olot in central Catalonia. The road was originally built during the middle ages to transport wood from the forests of the La Garrotxa region to the Royal Shipyards in Barcelona. The forty-five-kilometre section between the towns of Vic and Olot was…
Hiking the GR-6 from Barcelona to Sant Cugat
This post describes the section of the GR-6 long-distance hiking trail from Barcelona to Sant Cugat. The hike is approximately twelve kilometres long and takes about three hours to complete. The trail starts next to the Parc del Laberint, on the outskirts of Barcelona, and crosses the Collserola Natural Park to the nearby town of…
From Barcelona to the Santa Maria de Montserrat Monastery by Train and On Foot (A Hiker’s Guide)
The Monastery of Santa Maria de Montserrat is an eleventh-century Benedictine monastery set in an idyllic mountaintop location approximately thirty-five kilometres from Barcelona. If you’ve already read my Ultimate Guide to Visiting Montserrat from Barcelona, you’ll know that the most convenient way to reach the monastery is by taking the R5 train from Barcelona, followed…
MACBA: Barcelona’s Iconic Contemporary Art Museum
Housed in an emblematic concrete and glass building designed by Richard Meier, Barcelona’s contemporary art museum, the MACBA or Museu d’Art Contemporani de BArcelona, was inaugurated in 1995. More than just a museum, in addition to its permanent and temporary collections, the MACBA is a centre for art education and research. As the museum’s name…
A Fan’s Guide to Seeing FC Barcelona Play at Camp Nou (written by a local)
Futbol Club Barcelona, aka Barça, is one of the best football clubs in the world, and their ground El Camp Nou is the largest football stadium in Europe. If you like football, no matter which club you support, then seeing Barça play at Camp Nou should be high on your list of things to do…
Visiting the Picasso Museum in Barcelona (Info, tickets and tips)
The Picasso Museum of Barcelona (Catalan: Museu Picasso de Barcelona) is one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions and one of Spain’s best-known art museums. Founded in 1963 by Picasso’s friend and secretary Jaume Sabartés, the museum contains more than four thousand paintings, the most extensive collection of Picasso’s work anywhere in the world.…
How to use T-Mobilitat in Barcelona (The new contactless travel card)
T-Mobilitat is a contactless payment system which can be used on public transport within Barcelona and the surrounding area. There are two ways of using the system: In order to use the system, you first need to create an account on the T-Mobilitat website, upload a copy of your passport or ID card and wait…
Monument to the People Executed Between 1939 and 1952
The parapet of the people executed 1939-1952 (Catalan: Parapet de les executades i executats 1939-1952) is a fifty-five metre-long memorial to the 1,706 people executed in Barcelona during the early years of Franco’s dictatorship. The executions were by firing squad, and victims were lined up against a concrete wall which stood next to an area…
The Ultimate Guide to Visiting Montserrat from Barcelona
Tucked away amongst the jagged peaks of Montserrat, the Benedictine Monastery of Santa Maria de Montserrat is one of the most popular day trips from Barcelona. The monastery dates back to the eleventh century and was built to house a wooden statue of Our Lady of Montserrat, which, legend has it, was found in a…
The Twenty-Metre Tall Granite Obelisk in Plaça Cinc d’Ors
If you keep walking along Passseig de Gràcia, past La Pedrera, towards the Vila de Gràcia, you’ll come to a large and rather chaotic intersection called Plaça Cinc d’Ors. The plaza, which is really just an overgrown roundabout, takes its name from one of the cards in a pack of Spanish playing cards; the Cinc…
Olot: Things To See & Do In The Capital Of The Garrotxa Region
Olot is the largest town in the Garrotxa Volcanic Zone, a natural park approximately one hundred kilometres northwest of Barcelona. As the name implies, the area is known for its volcanoes, four of which are located within the city itself. The volcanos last erupted more than eleven thousand years ago and are now mostly covered…
What To Do If You Run Out Of Medication While Visiting Spain
When travelling abroad, whether on holiday or for work, you should always ensure that you have enough medication for the duration of your stay. For longer stays, your doctor may be able to write you an extended prescription. On the other hand, sometimes plans go awry, causing you to run out. Maybe your bags got…
