Empúries is the only archaeological site in the Iberian Peninsula where the remains of a Greek city Empòrion coexist with those from the Roman city, Emporiae. It is also the gateway to the classical culture: Ten centuries of history that transformed, forever, the ancient Iberian peoples that inhabited it.
The first settlement of the Greeks was in the 6th century BCE on a small island off the coast of the Gulf of Roses (Palaia Polis, ancient city), and then moved to the mainland to establish what was known as the Neàpolis, the new city. In 218 BCE, the port of Empúries was used as an entry point to the peninsula for the Roman troops in their fight against the Carthaginian army. Between the 6th century BCE and the 5th century AD, Empúries has been a port, a commercial enclave, a western colony of Greece, the first Roman encampment on the peninsula, a prosperous Roman city...
The current Greek ruins belong to the city from the Hellenistic period. During the visit there we would find the precincts Asclepius and Serapis, the small industry which produced canned fish and sauces, the Agorá or public square and the remains of the floor of a banqueting room with an inscription in Greek.
Notable from the Roman period is the Domus 1 with the mosaics that decorated the ground, the Insula 30 (area occupied by the city’s public baths), the Forum, the remains of the Basilica and the Curia and the tabernae or shops.
Half way along the route you can visit the Museum of the Empúries excavations which houses the exceptional original sculpture of Asclepius found at the site.
It is therefore a privileged space for understanding the evolution of the Greek and Roman urban development and is a turning point in the history of the Iberian Peninsula. Currently it is one of the sites of the Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya (Archaeological Museum of Catalonia).
Devoted to the culture of the object, the Museu del Disseny de Barcelona (Design Museum of Barcelona) offers visitors unique collections formed of more than 70,000 pieces which cover, in chronological order, items from the 4th century BC to the present day. The object and all that it means to society is the common denominator of all collections: from its conception, creation and production up to its use according to the period.
Contemplating many of the pieces of the museum is to return, often, to the everyday environment: the Montesa Impala motorcycle, the poster of the opening of the Camp Nou or the Olympic mascot Cobi, among many others, are objects that appeal directly to the sentimental memory of the spectator.
The vast wealth of the new museum in Barcelona is formed by the merger of the collections of the Museu de les Arts Decoratives (decorative arts), the Museu de Ceràmica (ceramics), the Museu Tèxtil i d'Indumentària (textiles and clothing), and the Gabinet de les Arts Gràfiques (graphic arts).
But if the content is outstanding, its container, the Museu del Disseny itself, is not far behind: the building, designed by the MBM team of architects and popularly known as the la grapadora (the stapler), is already a new icon of the contemporary architecture of the city.
As a result of the confiscations in the 19th century, a large part of the artistic heritage of the church was dispersed or privatised.With the Catalan Renaixença (Catalonia's cultural renaissance) efforts were made to recover and protect this entire legacy through initiatives such as the Museu de Lleida Diocesà i Comarcal, (Diocesan and Regional Museum of Lleida), founded in 1893, following the example of the Museu Episcopal de Vic. Today, the museum manages an important artistic legacy from the lands of the West and from the ancient Diocese of Lleida, which covers the period from prehistory to the modern age.
In 2007 the new branch was opened that set out the criteria of the site.There are certain outstanding exhibits that must not be missed during the tour of the museum. These include the head of a Roman satyr, altar frontals from the 13th century and sculptural fragments of the Seu Vella. From the Renaissance and Baroque, works by the painter Pere Nunyes, sculptures by Gabriel Joly and Damià Forment and several works by the painter Antonio Viladomat.
Highlights of the permanent collection include two unique pieces: the chess game of 10th -11th century by Sant Pere d’Àger and the Mare de Déu de Bellpuig de les Avellanes, one of the most important examples of Catalan Gothic heritage
The MHC is a museum designed to stimulate interest in the evolution of Catalan culture. In the Palau de Mar, one of the few conserved buildings of the old port of Barcelona, visitors follow a thought-provoking story that is divided into eight stages, starting in prehistoric times and finishing in the present day to, and taken from a social, economic, political and cultural point of view.
During the tour, you will find objects and documents, historical recreations and audiovisual and interactive scenes, which in an entertaining way, illustrate the history of this nation.
The visitor even gets the opportunity to climb onto the horse of a Lord in the war of the Middles Ages and hide in a trench of the Civil War.
The musical heritage of Barcelona and Catalonia is immense, and one of the institutions that has done the most to conserve, study and disseminate it has been the Museu de la Música de Barcelona. Located on the second floor of the Auditorium, it has a collection of 2,000 musical instruments from all over the world and 10,000 sound documents received from legacies and donations. It is considered one of the most important music collections in Spain.
The permanent exhibition invites visitors to experience the world of music and to understand that instruments are the living documents of our past, full of meaning and information related to our musical heritage. On display along the route of the museum are more than 500 pieces, explained through audiovisual, sound and textual resources.
The itinerary for the exhibition enables the visitor to learn about the instruments through the history of music: from ancient civilisations, progressing on to the birth and diffusion of polyphony, Baroque, Classicism and Romanticism, until reaching the new colours and industry of sound in the 19th century and the new styles and new technologies of the 20th century.
String instruments are the most widely represented in the museum, with an outstanding collection of guitars and keyboard instruments. The museum also focuses, deservedly, on wind instruments, as they reflect the important Catalan construction tradition and its use in South American and Asian cultures.
The Museu del Cinema de Girona was created from the exceptional collection of objects related to the world of pre-cinema and the films of Tomàs Mallol made up of 8,000 objects, 10,000 documents (photographs, posters, prints, drawings and paintings), 800 films and 700 books and magazines. Opened in 1998, it became the first museum of its kind in Spain and one of the few existing in Europe./p>
Entering the Museu del Cinema is to embark on a process of discovery. And the permanent exhibition has in the spectator their own point of view. This is not surprising. Throughout history, man has been fascinated by the moving image, from the primitive Chinese shadows until the early years of cinema.
This discovery process is divided into 10 sections plus an audiovisual, which serves as a prologue to the exhibition, and an epilogue that refers to amateur and children's cinema.The main discourse ends in the 1930s, with the arrival of the first televisions.
Thus the visitor gets an educational and entertaining understanding of the workings of magic lanterns, optical boxes, cameras obscura, chronophotography, gadgets for giving movement to the first images (phenakistoscopes, zoetropes, etc.…), projectors... The visitor even gets to be fooled by several optical illusions, which demonstrate that, since ancient times, the most important thing has always been to surprise
The first film exhibition in Catalonia took place on 5th May, 1895 in Barcelona. Almost a century later, in 1981, the Filmoteca de Catalunya, was born, dedicated to the conservation of film and audiovisual heritage and to the dissemination of film culture.
Today, the Filmoteca de Catalunya has a collection of more than 45,000 books, 20,000 graphic archives, 8,000 films, 5,000 sound tracks and 1,200 pieces of original film equipment. It is the result of the work of conservation, restoration, cataloguing, documentation and study of the film heritage of Catalonia carried out by this institution.
However, the best way to get to know the Filmoteca is through exhibitions, publications and film projections, nearly a thousand each year.
After acquiring a first projection room in the street Travessera de Gràcia and more than 20 years at the old Aquitània cinema in Sarrià, in 2012 the new headquarters in the district of El Raval were officially opened. This building, designed by Josep Lluís Mateo is the location for the main display and exhibition areas, a library and a bookstore.
The holdings and film collections are conserved in the other main site of the Filmoteca, the Centre de Conservació i Restauració, located in Terrassa, in the Parc Audiovisual de Catalunya.
The CaixaForum is located in the former fàbrica tèxtil Casaramona (Casaramona textile factory) in Montjuïc, which specialised in the manufacture of blankets and towels. This building designed by Josep Puig is an exceptional example of Catalan industrial "modernista" architecture of the early twentieth century. It comprises a set of single-story buildings, a horizontal construction to facilitate the transfer of goods through a system of internal streets that at the same time also served as a firewall.
The building was acquired by Obra Social "la Caixa" in 1963. In 2002, after a restoration and expansion project, it became a cultural centre for Barcelona. It offers social, cultural and educational programming that includes ongoing events such as lectures, film screenings, performances, concerts and family activities.
In addition, a quarter of the total 12,000 m2 building is occupied by ancient, modern and contemporary art exhibitions. It also has an outstanding collection of artistic and documentary art media.
The greatest monument in Catalonia is also the largest bastioned fortress in Europe. The Castle of Sant Ferran occupies an area of 550,000 m² at the top of the hill of Figueres. As a good frontier Castle, the location is unbeatable: It has good views of the Serra de l’Albera, which creates the border with France, and the Gulf of Roses.
Undoubtedly it was constructed to meet the need to reinforce the border after the Peace of the Pyrenees of 1659 and owes its name to King Ferran VI (Ferdinand VI). The fortification, which was begun in 1766 but was only completed in 1892, consists of two enclosures.
The interior, of more than 325,000 m2, consists of six bastions connected by stretches of wall. The size of the building cannot go unnoticed: stables with capacity for 500 horses, warehouses to store food for 10,000 people for a year, the main square, new pavilions for the accommodation of the officials and their families, and four big cisterns with a total capacity of nine million litres of water.
The exterior enclosure, with a perimeter of 3,120 metres, made up of three hornworks, seven ravelins and two counterguards. It is separated from the outside by a large moat of 10 hectares, which can currently be visited, including the underground galleries.
Its monumental dimensions have always made military activity both difficult and very costly which has frequently meant that it has not been used to its full potential. Since 1997 regular guided tours of the Castle of Sant Ferran have been organised.
Integrated into the Regional Network of the Museu de la Ciència i de la Tècnica de Catalunya, the Ecomuseu-Farinera at Castelló d'Empúries has, from 2004, explained the story of the men and women of the region dedicated to the cultivation of the wheat grain and the various uses of the flour.
The building of la Farinera offers a tour of the Catalan industrial flour heritage. The machines, tools and structures exhibited are testimony of an activity that has developed since medieval times: first in the old flour mill, and from the end of the 19th century to 2001, at the modern flour mill factory.
The visit to the Ecomuseum is completed with a route that follows, up to the Pont de la Mercè, part of the five kilometres of the Rec del Molí (mill irrigation channel). This hydraulic infrastructure drove water from the weir at Vilanova de la Muga to the flour mill, skirting around and supplying the orchards and fields. Upon arrival at the flour mill, the water turned a Francis turbine from 1905, which was responsible for generating the energy necessary for the operation of the factory.
