Tibidabo - Barcelona - Attractions

At 542m (1778ft), Tibidabo is the highest hill in the wooded range that forms the backdrop to Barcelona. If the air's clear, it's a great place for views over the city. The locals come up here for some thrills at the amusement park Parc d'Atraccions, which has rides and a house of horrors. As hair-raising as anything at the Parc, however, is the glass lift that goes 115m (126yd) up to a visitors' observation area at Torre de Collserola telecommunications tower. The more sedate can find solace in Temple del Sagrat Cor, Barcelona's answer to Paris' Sacré Coeur; it's even more vilified by aesthetes than its Paris equivalent. Looming above Tibidabo's funicular station, it is actually two churches, one on top of the other. The top one is surmounted by a giant Christ and has a lift to the roof.

Montjuic - Barcelona - Attractions

Montjuic, the hill overlooking the city centre from the southwest, is home to some fine art galleries, leisure attractions, soothing parks and the main group of 1992 Olympic sites. Approach the area from Plaça d'Espanya and on the north side you'll see Plaça de Braus Les Arenes, a former bullring where the Beatles played in 1966. Behind it lies Parc Joan Miró, where stands Mir?'s highly phallic sculpture Dona i Ocell (Woman and Bird). Nearby, the Palau Nacional houses the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, which has an impressive collection of Romanesque art. Stretching up a series of terraces below the Palau Nacional are fountains, including the biggest, La Font Màgica, which comes alive with a free lights and music show on summer evenings. In the northwest of Montjuic is the 'Spanish Village', Poble Espanyol. At first glance it's a tacky tourist trap, but it also proves to be an intriguing scrapbook of Spanish architecture, with very convincing copies of buildings from all of Spain's regions. The Anella Olímpica (Olympic Ring) is the group of sports installations where the main events of the 1992 games were held. Down the hill, visit masterpieces of another kind in the Fundacio Joan Miro, Barcelona's gallery for the greatest Catalan artist of the 20th century. This is the largest single collection of the his work.

La Pedrera - Barcelona - Attractions

Another Gaudí masterpiece, La Pedrera was built between 1905 and 1910 as a combined apartment and office block. Formerly called the Casa Milà, it's better known now as La Pedrera (the quarry) because of its uneven grey stone facade that ripples around a street corner - it creates a wave effect that's further emphasized by elaborate wrought-iron balconies. Visitors can tour the building and go up to the roof, where giant multicoloured chimney pots jut up like medieval knights. On summer weekend nights, the roof is eerily lit and open for spectacular views of Barcelona. One floor below the roof is a modest museum dedicated to Gaudí's work.

La Sagrada Familia - Barcelona - Attractions

La Sagrada Familia is truly awe-inspiring - even if you don't have much time, don't miss it. The life's work of Barcelona's favourite son, Antoni Gaudí, the magnificent spires of the unfinished cathedral imprint themselves boldly against the sky with swelling outlines inspired by the holy mountain Montserrat. They are encrusted with a tangle of sculptures that seem to breathe life into the stone. Gaudí died in 1926 before his masterwork was completed, and since then, controversy has continually dogged the building program. Nevertheless, the southwestern (Passion) facade, with four more towers, is almost done, and the nave, begun in 1978, is progressing. Some say the shell should have been left as a monument to the architect, but today's chief architect, Jordi Bonet, argues that the task is a sacred one, as it's a church intended to atone for sin and appeal to God's mercy on Catalunya.

Barri Gotic - Places of Interest in Barcelona - Attractions

The Barri Gotic contains a concentration of medieval Gothic buildings only a few blocks northeast of La Rambla, and is the nucleus of old Barcelona. It's a maze of interconnecting dark streets linking with squares, and there are plenty of cafes and bars, as well as the cheapest accommodation in town. Most of the buildings date from the 14th and 15th century, when Barcelona was at the height of its commercial prosperity and before it had been absorbed into Castile. Around the Catedral, one of Spain's greatest Gothic buildings, you can still see part of the ancient walls incorporated into later structures. The quarter is centred around the Plaça de Sant Jaume, a spacious square, the site of a busy market and one of the venues for the weekly dancing of the sardana. Two of the city's most significant buildings are here, the Ajuntament and the Palau de la Generalitat.

La Rambla - Places of Interest in Barcelona - Attractions

Five separate streets strung end to end, La Rambla (also called Las Ramblas) is a tree-lined pedestrian boulevard packed with buskers, living statues, mimes and itinerant salespeople selling everything from lottery tickets to jewellery. The noisy bird market on the second block of La Rambla is worth a stop, as is the nearby Palau de la Virreina, a grand 18th-century rococo mansion, with arts and entertainment information and a ticket office. Next door is La Rambla's most colourful market, the Mercat de la Boqueria. Just south of the Boqueria the Mosaic de Miró punctuates the pavement, with one tile signed by the artist. The next section of La Rambla boasts the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the famous 19th-century opera house. Below the Plaça Reial, La Rambla becomes decidedly seedy, with strip clubs and peep shows. La Rambla terminates at the lofty Monument a Colom (Monument to Columbus) and the harbour. You can ascend the monument by lift. Just west of the monument, on Avinguda de les Drassanes, stand the Reials Drassanes (Royal Shipyards), which house the fascinating Museu Marítim. It has more seafaring paraphernalia than you'd care to wag a sextant at - boats, models, maps, paintings, ships' figureheads and 16th-century galleys.

Museu d’art Modern - Barcelona Museums

The Modern Art Museum features a large collection of paintings, sculptures, drawings, engravings, and decorative objects by Catalan artists from the 19th and 20th centuries. Included are works from Catalan artists related to the modernist movement such as, Fortuny, Rusinol, Gaudi, and Homar.

Museu Egipci - Barcelona Museums

Belonging to the Fundacio Arqueologica Clos, this collection of Ancient Egyptian art includes over 400 sarcophaguses, funerary steles, and busts from throughout the different Pharaoh periods.

Museu Maritim - Barcelona Museums

With a large collection of model ships, including a full-size replica of Juan de Austria’s Lepanto slave gallery, the Maritime Museum is a must-see for boat lovers and Barcelona history enthusiasts.

Museu Barbier-Mueller d’Art Precolombi - Barcelona Museums

This small but impressive museum, located in the Nadal Palace, holds a prestigious collection of tribal and ancient art from the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific, including sculptures, masks, pottery, gold, silver, and jewels.

Museu Militar de Montjuic - Barcelona Museums

Located inside an 18th century Barcelona fortress, the Military Museum features an impressive collection of weapons dating from the 15th century to present day, as well as a 20,000 piece display of miniatures, castle models, and lead soldiers.

Museu de Ciencies Naturals - Barcelona Museums

This museum encompasses both the Museu de Zoologia Historia Natural, with its collection of over 85 thousand invertebrates, 800 arthropods, and 18,000 vertebrates, housed in the Castell dels Tres Dragons (originally built as a café for the 1888 World Fair), as well as the Museu de Geologia, which features over 10,000 rock specimens from Catalonia, Spain, and around the world.

Museu de Erotica - Barcelona Museums

Opened in 1997, this petite museum holds a prize exhibit of Chinese and Japanese engravings, as well as interesting Kama Sutra illustrations, Japanese erotic drawings, and replicas of African phallic sculptures that emphasize the importance of sexuality in art throughout the ages.

Museu Art Contemporani de Barcelona - Barcelona Museums

The MACBA is composed of art produced over the last fifty years, along with works connected to the avant-garde movements from the turn of the century.

Museu Nacional Art de Catalunya - Barcelona Museums

Officially declared a national museum in 1990, the MNAC is housed in the grand Palau Nacional, which was built for the 1929 exposition. This museum features one of the world’s finest collections of Romanesque mural paintings, as well as reconstructed church interiors including frescoes, altarpieces, carvings and sculptures. In addition to the MNAC’s permanent exhibition of works by Spanish artists such as Goya and El Greco, there is an impressive collection of Gothic paintings by some of the most important painters within the Catalan School from the 14th and 15th centuries.

Museu de la Xocolata - Barcelona Museums

The Chocolate Museum is a tasty showcase of Barcelona’s local confectionary guild. Among its many cocoa creations, the museum features chocolate miniatures of Gaudi’s Casa Mila and Casa Batllo, as well as informative presentations on the history of everyone’s most delicious indulgence.

The Barbier-Mueller Museum of Pre-Columbian Art - Barcelona Museums

This is the only museum in Europe devoted exclusively to Pre-Columbian cultures. Housed in a gothic palace, its collection is one of the finest of its kind and gives visitors an insight into the rich world of the earliest cultures on the American continent. This tiny, intimist museum contains some one hundred pieces, including wood and stone sculptures, ceramics, tapestries, jade, an archaeological ensemble often found in international exhibitions and prestige publications. The collection is structured around the human groups which inhabited the territory between Mesoamerica and South America before the arrival of the Spanish. The cultures represented include the Olmec, Maya, Aztec, Chavin, Mochica and Inca civilisations.

Palau de la Musica Catalana - Barcelona Museums

One of the world's most extraordinary music halls, with facades that are a riot of color and form, the Palau de la Música (Music Palace) is a Barcelona landmark. From its polychrome ceramic ticket windows on the Carrer de Sant Pere Més Alt side to its overhead busts of (from left to right) Palestrina, Bach, Beethoven, and (around the corner on Carrer Amadeus Vives) Wagner, the Palau is a flamboyant tour de force. Designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner in 1908, it is today considered the flagship of Barcelona's Moderniste architecture.

Gaudi Casa-Museu - Barcelona Museums

Gaudí lived with his niece from 1906 to 1926 in this pink, Alice-in-Wonderland house, now a house museum. Exhibits include Gaudí-designed furniture, decorations, drawings, and portraits and busts of the architect.

Fundació Miró - Barcelona - Barcelona Museums

The Miró Foundation was a gift from the artist Joan Miró to his native city and is one of Barcelona's most exciting showcases of contemporary art. The airy, white building was designed by Josep Lluís Sert and opened in 1975; an extension was added by Sert's pupil Jaume Freixa in 1988. Miró's unmistakably playful and colorful style, filled with Mediterranean light and humor, seems a perfect match for its surroundings. Look for Alexander Calder's mercury fountain. Miró himself rests in the cemetery on Montjuïc's southern slopes. When he died in 1983, the Catalans gave him a send-off amounting to a state funeral.