MACBA: Barcelona’s Iconic Contemporary Art Museum

MACBA Contemporary Art Museum. Barcelona

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…

Visiting the Picasso Museum in Barcelona (Info, tickets and tips)

Picasso museum Barcelona

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.…

The Shoe Museum

Hemp shoes frm China and Catalonia

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.…

Barcelona Design Museum – DHUB

Barcelona Design Museum

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…

Barcelona Motorcycle Museum

Vintage Bultaco and Montesa motorcycles

Unfortunately the Barcelona Motorcycle Museum is no longer open to the public. The museum closed in 2018 and the collection was moved to the museum’s other location in Basella (Lleida). More information here. This small museum in the heart of Barcelona’s Gothic quarter houses a collection of approximately 70 classic motorbikes. The museum’s collection is…

The Born Cultural Centre

The Born Cultural Centre

Designed by Antoni Rovira i Trias and inaugurated in 1876, the “Mercat del Born” was Barcelona’s first cast-iron covered market and is the largest of it’s kind in Europe. It was the city’s central food market right up-until 1971 when the new Mercabarna wholesale market opened in the Zona Franca. The abandoned market building fell…

The Caixa Forum

Caixa Forum Barcelona

More than just a modern art museum, the Caixa Forum is billed as a Cultural Centre and stages temporary exhibitions as well as concerts, arts related educational workshops and films. There are 3 main exhibition halls, a cinema and a dedicated children’s activity area called Caixa Forum Kids. There is just one permanent exhibit; Joseph…

Museum of Catalan Modernism

Museum of Catalan Modernism, Barcelona

The Museum of Catalan Modernism opened in 2010 and contains furniture, paintings and sculptures from two private collections exhibited in a modernist building on Carrer Balmes. The museum includes works by most of the major exponents of the genre including Antoni Gaudi, Joan Busquets, Eusbei Arnau, Josep Llimona and others. The museum occupies 2 floors…

Monestir de Pedralbes – One of Barcelona’s Best Kept Secrets!

The Monestir de Pedralbes, Barcelona

The Monestir de Pedralbes is a beautiful gothic monastery which was built in 1326 by Queen Elisenda in an effort to be forgiven for her sins. Some of the most famous architects of the time worked on the project including Ramon Despuig and Berenguer de Montagut who also designed the Bascilica de Santa Maria del…

Microcars in Barcelona

Cute green microcar

The MUHBA (Barcelona History Museum) has several centres dedicated to the history of the city from Roman times to the present day. From the 21st of December 2012 until the 15th of March 2013 they are staging a temporary exhibition dedicated to the history of microcars in Barcelona. The exhibition consists of about 15 cars and microcars from…