General public

At Plaça Gran in Granollers, on a stone platform, fifteen columns rise up, covered by a four-sided roof with the edges covered with green glazed tiles. This Porxada or Portico, the most emblematic monument of Granollers, was built between 1586 and 1587 as a corn exchange. Today it has become the nerve centre of the city.

The initial project has been attributed to the master builder, Bartomeu Brufalt, and cost 520 Barcelonan pounds, according to the contract with the university of Granollers. Initially it was used during the agricultural market to protect the wheat that was sold here. In 1872, it was enclosed with grilles and stalls were built inside. It served its function as a general market until 1938, when a bombardment by the Francoist air force left the Porxada in ruins. After the war, in 1939, it was rebuilt without grilles or the stalls, leaving the columns open as they would have been when it was designed.

On the south-western corner of the Porxada, opposite the Granollers Town Hall, we find the Pedra de l’Encant (Stone of the Auction), a block of red sandstone which was undoubtedly used for conducting public sales (encants or auctions) of agriculture products and livestock. Legend says that this stone was carried to the Porxada by a flood and that there will be another flood that will carry it away.

The town of Cercs, in Berguedà, forms part of the most important mining centre in Catalonia, particularly from the modern mining of brown lignite coal in the late 19th century. To ensure stable labour in such an isolated place, a colony was built with housing and basic services for the miners, following the example of the textile colonies in the region.

Since 1999, the colony of Sant Corneli has been home to Cercs Mines Museum, which explains what the mining activity in the area was like over many years, from a geological, landscape, social and economic point of view. The Museum belongs to the Territorial system of the Science and Technology Museum of Catalonia (mNACTEC).

The main building of the Museum is the old school of the colony, which was converted in 1931 to the "Hogar del Minero" (Home of the Miner) dedicated to services for workers (café, library, barbershop, cinema, games room, etc.). Here you can see the permanent exhibition that explains what coal mining and the mining infrastructure was like. A significant part is devoted to daily life in the colony and to the working conditions of the miners. Two audiovisual displays describe their most emblematic protests and you can also visit a miner’s house.

In 2012, "The spectacle of the mine: emotions and sensations" was included as part of the exhibition which delves into the world of mining through a immersive museum experience using new technologies.

Finally, a guided tour of the interior of the mine transports the visitor to other periods and you can travel along the first 450 metres of a 7 km long gallery in a wagon.

In Catalonia, the Gothic lasted longer than in other neighbouring regions. Therefore, examples of Renaissance architecture are rather scarce. One of the first buildings in this style, preserved in Catalonia, is the Town Hall of Arnes (Terra Alta). The proof is on the frieze of the six main windows where you can read, going consecutively one to the other, an inscription with the construction date of "1584" and the name of Joan Vilabona of Queretes.

The building, entirely free-standing, has an entrance portico. The first floor is surrounded by six windows with lintels and engaged, ionic half-columns, probably the place where the Renaissance influence can best be seen. Finally, completing the complex is the second floor with an arcaded gallery, now blocked in. Despite its austerity, some details are particularly notable such as the gargoyles or the coat of arms on a keystone of the central door.

The inside had been modified, but now nothing remains of the original sixteenth century interior. This was lost in 1835 during the Carlist Wars, when the building was set on fire.

From history and ethnography to geography and the economy, also taking in the ecology. The Museu de les Terres de l'Ebre (Museum of the Lands of the Ebro in Amposta) gives a cross-sectional view of the Ebro delta region. Visitors can learn about the Ilercavones, learn different ways of fishing, even see a ‘llagut’ up close, the most characteristic river boat.

It was created in 2011, as an expansion and updating of the previous Museu Comarcal del Montsià (Montsià County Museum). It occupies the old modernista building of the Miquel Granell state school, which has been converted to meet the needs of a modern and thought-provoking museum project. The museum conserves and manages one of the most important collections of nature, archaeology and ethnology in the Terres de l'Ebre region made up of more than 35,000 objects, among which the Falcata stands out, an Iberian sword that forms part of the set of urns and artefacts from the Iberian necropolis of Mianes (Santa Barbara).

The permanent exhibition "The lands of the Ebro: from prehistory to the middle ages" takes a tour through the history of the banks of the lower Ebro, starting from the archaeological remains found in the area. The second room, "Ebro: the water road" focuses on the influence of the most important river on the Iberian Peninsula on history and the collective identity, and reflects on what the future of the territory will be like.

On the museum’s website, various archaeological items can be viewed in 3D.

The museum will head up the network "Ebro nature & culture" which brings together museums, interpretation centres, archaeological sites and monuments in the different municipalities of the Ebro.

The dolmen of Cova d'en Daina (Daina’s Cave) in Romanya de la Selva, is one of the most complete and best preserved megaliths in Catalonia. It is also noted for being one of the most representative funeral monuments of its type, known as a "Catalan gallery" or "wide corridor" grave.

Dating from between 2700 - 2200 BCE, in the Neolithic period, it consists of a covered gallery, 7 metres in length, in a U-shape, built with granite slabs. Originally, it would have incorporated a circular tumulus and cromlech (a structure formed by stones or menhirs affixed in the ground in a circular or elliptical shape).

These types of "Catalan gallery" tombs are typical of the late Neolithic period and are the result of the evolution of the "corridor graves". They are formed by a geometric chamber where the human remains and grave goods were deposited and a corridor almost the same width as the chamber.

The Cova d'en Daina was excavated for the first time in the nineteenth century and a large number of very fragmented bones and the teeth of many adults and children were found, the result of successive collective burials. In addition, flint tools, pottery fragments and some ornaments (necklaces and small pieces of slate and gold) were discovered.

You can discover the history of Tortosa in one of the most significant buildings of the city. This is the old abattoir, a modernista work by the architect Pau Monguió, built on land reclaimed from the River Ebro. In 2012, on the centenary of the Museum of Tortosa it was moved and advantage was taken of the pavilions to display a completely renovated Museum project.

The museum has a collection of more than 4,000 pieces among which include prehistoric flint tools, Roman funerary stones, Andalusian pottery, Gothic capitals, signs of flooding, the tools of one of the last potters of Tortosa, and paintings and sculpture by artists from Tortosa, among others.

The tour of the permanent exhibition provides information on the history of Tortosa and its surrounding regions, from the prehistoric times to the present day. Remains from Ilercavonia, Dertosa or Turtuxa are displayed. You can see the most representative pieces from each historical period from the museum’s own collection and from other museums that have made loans to the collection, such as the Prado Museum, the MNAC (National Art Museum of Catalonia), the National Archaeolgical Museum of Tarragona and the Museu de les Terres de l’Ebre. The contemporary work of the artist Leonardo Escoda interacts obliquely with the space and the content of the museum.

The idea of creating a museum in Valls goes back to 1909. From that time onwards, it has received donations and loans from patrons such that it now holds a collection of over a thousand works of Catalan art from the last 120 years, considered one of the best in Catalonia.

Located in the Casa de Cultura since 1970, its premises were completely refurbished in 1993. Taking a chronological journey through the collection, there are examples of Realism (F. Galofré Oller, Josep Marqués, Baldomer Galofré) and Modernism and Impressionism (Isidre Nonell, Eliseu Meifrén, Enric Galwey, Joan Llimona, Francesc Vayreda) and Noucentisme (Joaquim Sunyer, Enric Casanovas). One of the jewels of the museum is the collection of paintings, sculptures and jewellery by Manolo Hugué, linked to the early avant-garde.

The museum also has a good representation of the post-war artists (Josep M. Mallol Suazo, Josep Amat, Joan Miró, Antoni Tàpies, Joan Brossa, Apel·les Fenosa, Modest Cuixart).

Notable is its photography collection, thanks to the loan made in 1998 by the photographer Francesc Català-Roca. It is completed with works by Pere Català Pic, Pere Català Roca, Colita, Xavier Miserachs, Leopoldo Pomés and Oriol Maspons.

In addition to the art collection, the Museum of Valls also holds an important archaeological collection focused on the Iberian world, available to researchers, and an ethnographic collection of the castellera (human towers) which will become part of the future Museu Casteller de Catalunya (Human Tower Museum of Catalonia).

To understand what the twentieth century meant at an artistic level for the western regions of Catalonia, you should visit the Museu d'Art Jaume Morera, dedicated to modern and contemporary art in Lleida. Various artistic disciplines are represented here: painting, sculpture, architecture, drawing, print-making, graphic design, photography, video and even comics, with a clear predominance of local artists.

Opened in 1917 in the former Sant Lluís market, it is currently located in the Casino Principal building in Lleida pending the construction of its new headquarters. The painter Jaume Morera i Galícia, who donated his art collection and acted as patron, played a very prominent role in the initial tasks of putting together the museum's art collection. In gratitude for his collaboration, the Museum was named after him.

The collection ranges from the turn of the nineteenth century up to the present day: from Baldomer Gili, Xavier Gosé and Santiago Rusiñol to Joan Brossa and Albert Bayona. One of the most important parts of the collection, however, concerns the Avant-garde of the 1930s, in which pride of place is given to 190 works by the sculptor Leande Cristòfol such as De l’aire a l’aire (From Air to the Air, 1933) or Nit de lluna (Night of the Moon, 1935).

In 1927, the exiled Tsarist Colonel, Nicolai Woevodsky and his wife Dorothy Webster, an English Aristocrat fond of decorating, were looking for a Mediterranean paradise in which to settle down. Close to Calella de Palafrugell, on a cliff above Cap Roig, they built a castle which would connect them to this spot for the rest of their lives (they even asked to be buried there). The building was surrounded by an idyllic botanical garden, considered one of the most important in the Mediterranean.

Nicolai himself designed the mansion in the neo-medieval style (imitating the Monastery of Poblet), construction of which began in 1931 and was completed in 1975. It was popularly known as "Cal Rus" (the Russian House) after the origins of its owner. However, the couple always lived at the property which gives access to the botanical gardens. This is the main legacy of Dorothy Webster. She and a team of gardeners from the region took charge of preparing the seven hectares of land in order to plant various species. In 1935 there were more than 500 species of Mediterranean, tropical and subtropical flora.

When the couple died, the estate passed to the Fundació Caixa Girona and then to the "la Caixa" Foundation, which turned the land into a sculpture park for contemporary artists with works by Jorge Oteiza, Jaume Plensa and Xavier Corberó. Every summer the gardens are home to a prestigious concert series: the Cap Roig Festival.

The landscapes of Garrotxa have been a source of inspiration for several generations of artists, as a visit to this museum makes clear. Located on the third floor of the eighteenth century hospital building, the Museum of Garrotxa (Olot) displays the artistic activity of the region between the late eighteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, placing the main emphasis on the Olot landscape school of painting. This movement from the second half of the nineteenth century, led by the siblings Joaquim and Marià Vayreda and Josep Berga i Boix, introduced the model of the Barbizon school of landscape painting to Catalan art.

Works by local artists such as Miquel Blay, Josep Clarà, Ramon Amadeu, Josep Berga i Boada, Melcior Domenge, Iu Pasqual, Francesc Vayreda, Xavier Nogués, Leonci Quera, Josep Pujol, Xavier Gosé and Laureà Barrau, among others, form part of the museum's collection.

The collection is completed with the presence of artists from outside the region, mainly from the turn of the 19th century, such as Enric Galwey, Joan Llimona, Joan Brull, Joaquim Mir and Ramon Casas, who is given pride of a place in the museum and whose painting La càrrega (The Charge), a large canvas which, at the time, was very controversial, has been in the museum’s collection since 1919. Also noteworthy is the collection of Modernista posters.

In 2016, the permanent exhibition was expanded with the donation of 13 works from the MNAC (Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya) by artists who were influenced by the Olot landscape painting school, such as Rafel Benet, Ramon Martí Alsina and Modest Urgell, which allows a more comprehensive reading of the museum collection to be made.