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Joan Vila Cinca, Pere Quart, Josep Renom... Sabadell in the beginning of the 20th century was boiling over artistically and culturally and the first fine arts and archaeology collections in the city started to get organized. From there arose the need to create a local museum. In the year 1931, the Museum of the City opened its doors and, starting in 1970, it was definitely established as the Sabadell History Museum, an obligatory stop to learn about the origins of the Vallès plains.

The museum is located in the factory home of the industrialist Antoni Casanovas, erected in 1859. This is a multi-disciplinary museum, which includes local archaeological, historic and ethnological collections.

In the permanent exhibit, visitors can discover how the first prehistoric communities in the area lived, using materials between 6,500 and 2,600 years old such as the variscite necklace which was part of the burial objects of a Neolithic tomb (found in the site of Bòbila Padró - Can Tiana). You can even go inside the reconstruction of a prehistoric hut!

The tour continues by showing the footprints that the Iberians and the Romans left on the region (don’t miss the mosaic from the 2nd-3rd centuries A.D., with the image of the god Neptune, coming from the Roman villa of La Salut). Finally, it focuses on the collections connected with the manufacturing of wool and the textile industry, which turned Sabadell into a big industrial city.

The museum also has 13 areas on different periods which complete the story and the experience of the city’s history.

This museum is the best homage of the city of Reus to one of its most well-known natives: the doctor and prehistorian Salvador Vilaseca Anguera (1896-1975). During his life, he gathered an extensive archaeological paleontological collection that is a unique testimony on the first cultures that inhabited the county of Baix Camp and its neighbouring territories.

The museum was inaugurated in 1984 at the Old Bank of Spain, a neoclassic building that stands out due to its corner in the form of a tower. Inside, the permanent exhibit shows materials that cover the lower Palaeolithic era to the Medieval Muslim occupation of this territory (the 8th century).

Even though the old Vilaseca collection is the basis of the archaeological content, it also has pieces from other origins such as deposits, donations or more recent excavations. During your tour of the museum, you can admire fossilized remains of animals from the Quaternary period coming from the Barranc de la Boella ravine (more than 500,000 years old), pieces from the Neolithic burial cave called Cau d’en Serra or a bronze buckle found in a burial site in Antigons.

One of the most well-known pieces is the representation of a young deer, engraved over a small plate of llicorella (fine slate) with a flint chisel. It is one of the most ancient (about 10,000 years old) and most beautiful examples of Prehistoric portable art found in our country.

What happened in Mataró since the era of the flamboyant city of Iluro? This is what the Mataró Museum explains at its headquarters. Their objective is to safeguard and spread the archaeological, natural and movable heritage linked to the capital of the county of El Maresme.

Its headquarters are in Can Serra, the old manor of Jeroni Serra Arnau, built in 1565 and with a Renaissance style. On the inside, you can see a permanent exhibit that runs a path from Iluro to now, through Medieval times and modernity. It is worth it to stop at two significant pieces from the city’s Roman past: the sculpture of Venus d’Iluro and the Portrait of Faustina Minor.

While going through the museum, you can see a small part of the foundation accompanied by models and audiovisual material. The museum’s collections are very diverse: archaeological materials, natural specimens, historical objects and a pictorial art collection including a series of engravings by Goya.

One of the extensions of the museum is the Archaeological Enclosure of Llauder Tower, a site with the remains of a Roman villa from the end of the 1st century B.C. Another one of their headquarters corresponds to another time of splendour for the city. It is the small nave of Can Marfà, a symbol of the industrial past of Mataró. It hosts a permanent exhibit which shows more than a century of objects connected with the industry of knitting, one of the most important collections in Europe in this speciality.

Also part of the Mataró Museum is the Ca l’Arenas art centre. It was born from the legacy of the artist Jordi Arenas Clavell in his native city and it especially focuses on local artistic activity. 

Ethnology is more than just a set of pieces. The objects are the starting point allowing visitors to interpret their social surroundings. This is the main premise of the current Ethnology Museum of Barcelona, fully renovated in 2015.

It began in the first decade of the 20th century, when a group of pioneering intellectuals in Catalan ethnology saw the need to preserve and interpret traditional societies. Ultimately, two institutions were opened, the collections of which would form the foundation of the Ethnology Museum of Barcelona: the Museum of Popular Arts and Industries (1942) and the Ethnological and Colonial Museum (1949). They collected and exhibited objects from the five continents. Currently a part of this collection can be seen in the Museum of World Cultures.

After its latest remodelling, the Ethnology Museum of Barcelona is now focused on the Catalan area, but without forgetting its relationship with other communities and cultures. The main hub is the permanent exhibit “Sentir el patrimoni” (Feel the Legacy).

The central space of the room is occupied by six large objects (a boat, a wine press, a loom, a blacksmith blower and an herbal cabinet) which symbolize six thematic areas that make up all cultures. They are surrounded by other pieces that show the peculiarities and the universality of human culture. A whole side of the room is made up of a large frieze of objects of different geographic, historic and thematic origins.

The exhibit has audiovisual resources and multimedia content and even an area where visitors can touch certain pieces. It is also recommended to visit the two inner patios. In one of them, visitors can see the two giants of the city of Barcelona, Queen Violant and King James I, created by Domènech Umbert in the year 1984.

Murals, painting on wood, sculpture, textiles, clothing, documentary collections, metalwork, objects for the liturgy, etc. The current collection of the Museu Diocesà d'Urgell (Diocesan Museum of Urgell) is a reference point of sacred art in which the Beatus de Liébana particularly stands out, one of only two copies in Catalonia of the work that the Abbot Beat, from the Monastery of Liébana, wrote at the end of the 8th century, commenting on the Book of Revelation.

Curiously, the Museum grew out of a temporary exhibition that took place in 1957 with the pieces from the Cathedral Treasury. Such was the success of the exhibition that it was made permanent and the collection was expanded with pieces from throughout the diocese in the Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque styles and from the 19th century. Among these acquisitions there are treasures such as the Papal Bull of Pope Sylvester II.

In 1969, the Church of la Pietat (annexed to the Cathedral of Santa Maria de la Seu d'Urgell) was adapted to house the Museum. This space brought its own works to the collection such as the Pieta altarpiece and the Dormition group, made by the sculptor Jeroni Xanxo.

One of the most significant works of the collection is El retaule dels Goigs de la Verge (The Altarpiece of the Joys of the Virgin), from Abella de la Conca. It is by Pere Serra and dates from the 14th Century. In addition to its artistic value, it has a history of white-collar theft behind it. It was stolen in 1972 and, after a long journey, was recovered six years later in New York.

Frederic Marès, in addition to being a sculptor, developed a passion for collecting from a very early age. Over a period of more than 80 years, he assembled a large number of works of art (particularly sculpture) and more than 50,000 objects. In 1944, he gave his collections to the city of Barcelona which exhibited the collection two years later at the Museu Frederic Marès (Frederic Marès Museum), located in the former Royal Palace of the Counts of Barcelona.

In the basement and on the first two floors the collection of Hispanic sculpture from ancient times until the 19th century are concentrated . One of the jewels in the crown is L’aparició de Jesús als seus deixebles al mar (The Appearance of Jesus to his Disciples at the Sea), attributed to the Master of Cabestany, a masterpiece of the Catalan Romanesque which came from the monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes. Sculpture of the Spanish Renaissance and Baroque periods are also well represented. To a lesser extent, other artistic collections are on display (painting, metalwork, furniture and textiles).

Also displayed in the same building are the objects that Marès had collected: dolls, clocks, fans, pipes, playing cards, daguerreotypes, pharmacy jars, tin soldiers, etc. This area is known as the Gabinet del col·leccionista, or the Collector’s cabinet (Marès called it the Sentimental Museum). The visitor can take a tour through 17 rooms, in which the thousands of curious and endearing objects have been brought together which reflect the life and customs of the past, especially from the 19th century.

Finally, those who wish to delve more deeply into the figure of Frederic Marès can visit the study/library of the artist. This space has a set of sculptural works by Marès, which he himself chose to display to the public, as well as a number of personal items.

From archaeological finds from the Neolithic age and the Roman era, up to contemporary paintings, as well as Baroque carvings and modern paintings. The Museu Comarcal de Manresa (Manresa Regional Museum) is thematically multidisciplinary and the collections it has on display focus on the art and history of Manresa, Bages and Catalonia.

It began with a project in 1896, although it was at the end of the 70s that the museum took on the shape it has today. Located since 1940 in the old school of Sant Ignasi, the Museum is located within the area of influence of Ignatius of Loyola, near the Cova de Sant Ignasi (Cave of Saint Ignatius) and the Gothic church of Santa Maria (La Seu). The building is a large mansion built around a neoclassical courtyard.

During the tour, the visitor will find archaeological objects ranging from the Neolithic up to the Romanisation of the area, a collection of medieval pottery decorated in green and purple of the fourteenth century and Baroque polychrome carvings of the 17th and 18th centuries. In 2014, an area devoted to Antoni Viladomat i Manalt was opened, thanks to the loan of 12 works from MNAC (National Museum of Catalan Art).

It is worth stopping in the area of modern and contemporary art where you will find an important collection of dioramas and paintings by Josep Mestres Cabanes, a designer at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, and paintings and engravings by Alfred Figueras. A room is devoted to the artistic works of the Garriga-Mir Arts Foundation.

The Museum also has a multi-sensory module called "La Mirada Tàctil" (The Tactile Look), a tactile interpretation to make the visit as accessible as possible.

One of the most important collections of Catalan Romanesque art in Catalonia can be seen in the Museu Diocesà i Comarcal de Solsona (The Diocesan and Regional Museum of Solsona), located in the Episcopal Palace. As well as making a stop in the medieval period, visitors can take a trip back through time: from the prehistoric era to the modern age.

Most notable in the extensive Romanesque room are the architectural elements that come from the cloisters of the Cathedral of Santa Maria de Solsona: several capitals and an historiated column from the workshop of Master Gilabert de Tolosa.

Also outstanding is the exhibition of Virgin and Child paintings from the 12th and 13th centuries and major examples of pre-Romanesque and Romanesque wall painting from the complexes of Sant Quirze de Pedret and Sant Vicenç de Rus , the paintings on wooden panels from the side of the main altar of the Church of Sant Andreu de Sagàs, the Gothic pabel with the scene of the Last Supper of Santa Constance of Linyà and the altarpiece of Sant Jaume de Frontanyà.

The Diocesan Museum of Solsona was created in 1896 by Bishop Ramon Riu i Cabanes. The aim was the same as for those of the other ecclesiastical museums, such as the Episcopal Museum of Vic, founded 5 years earlier: to preserve the heritage of the diocese and to contribute to the national reconstruction launched by the Catalan Renaixença. All this wealth was endangered with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil war in 1936. For this reason, part of the collection was moved to Geneva and returned to Solsona after the war. The current Museum is the result of renovations carried out in the 1980s.

The Molí de les Tres Eres, the Mill of the Three Ages, formed part of a chain of three water powered flour mills that operated in Cambrils from the 14th century until the late 19th century. After being put to a variety of uses and after years of neglect, finally the old flour mill became the headquarters of the Museu d’Història de Cambrils (History of Cambrils Museum). It currently houses two permanent exhibitions that explain the development of the municipality.

The archaeological exhibition "Cambrils: the origins" takes a historic journey from prehistoric times to the late Roman period, through Neolithic Iberian and Roman objects that come from the various archaeological sites in the town. In particular, the Roman villa of La Llosa. Notable is a lapidary or carved stone with a representation of the adolescent god Bacchus and an oil lamp decorated with a mask, both from the 1st century AD.

Once the mill had been renovated in 2001, a permanent exhibition was opened in the milling room called "El Molí de les Tres Eres: testimoni viu del passat" (Mill of the Three Ages: living testimony of the past). Here, visitors can see the miller’s equipment and machinery and, once a week on the guided tour, the mill is put into operation. After more than 100 years, the mill has not only gone back to grinding wheat and flour, but has also become a living example of pre-industrial heritage.

Horta de Sant Joan, the village in the Terra Alta, which inspired a young Picasso marking it forever, was founded on a rugged landscape in a wonderful position between the Serra dels Pesells mountains and the Parc Natural dels Ports.
 
The origins of the town of Orta (as the town was known until the 19th century) date back many centuries. The archaeological evidence tells of a settlement of the Iberian people, the Ilercavones, in the highest part of the village, while in the mountainous area of Roques de Benet there was the Roman settlement of Bene. In the 8th century the Muslims conquered the area and it was reconquered by the Christians the 12th century. In this period, Horta de Sant Joan had a castle and a walled enclosure, which gave rise to the medieval town that has survived to the present day.
 
Still preserved are the narrow concentric alleys that surrounded the castle, which has now disappeared. The route through the historic centre allows several Gothic (the parish church of Sant Joan Baptista) and Renaissance (the town hall, Casa Clúa, Casa Pitarch and the Casa del Delme) buildings to be seen and to enjoy magnificent views over the mountain of Santa Bàrbara.
 
In year 1898, when Pablo Picasso with just 16 years old, he was invited to Horta de Sant Joan by his fellow student Manuel Pallarès in order to complete his cure from scarlet fever. It was then that the artist’s relationship with the municipality began, one that lasted throughout his life.
 
11 years later, when Picasso was already an established artist, he returned to the village with his partner Fernanda Olivier. The results of this second stay were the Cubist works such as the La Fàbrica and La Bassa, which show the streets and surroundings of Horta. In 1992, the Centre Picasso  was founded, located in the former hospital of the village.