Present

The gabella was an old tax levied was on certain essential goods and, by extension, was also used to designate the warehouses where these products were kept. The Gabella is exactly what the 18th-century farmhouse, in the centre of Arbúcies, was called and where you will find the Museu Etnològic del Montseny (Ethnological Museum of Montseny, MEMGA) in the Gabella, a name that already marks an historical past linked to the people and the region. And thus MEMGA, opened in 1985, is dedicated to the preservation, dissemination, research and presentation of the cultural heritage of the Montseny massif.

The visit to the museum encompasses three separate areas. The ground floor is devoted to the first settlers and shows the evolution of the way of life in Montseny: the prehistorical, the world of the Iberians, Romanisation and the Middle Ages. The visitor takes a journey through history where representative objects (some original, some reproductions) are found. A room is dedicated to the Castle of Montsoriu (14th century) with a selection of materials recovered during the archaeological excavations. A large model of the fortress dominates the space.

The first floor focuses on the traditional self-sufficient society, which was based on the agriculture, livestock farming and forestry. It was structured around farms, which were the economic pillar of the 19th century Montseny up until the industrial revolution. Indeed, the top floor of the Museum is dedicated to the changes that the arrival of industry brought to the region. Notable among the collections of the Museum are the displays of artisanal crafts and the beginnings of industrialisation.

The painter Josep Guinovart i Bertran, the greatest representative of informalism, spent much of the Civil war in Agramunt, the home town of his mother. He was then about 9 or 10 years old. To escape the bombardments, he lived with his family in a hut in a field. Despite the fact that he returned to Barcelona in 1941, this experience brought him closer to nature and to the rural environment that influenced his work and connected him forever to the municipality. So much so that in 1990 the artist wanted to create a centre for the creation and promotion of contemporary art in Agramunt: the Espai Guinovart.

It was inaugurated in 1994 and is housed in an old market building from the 1930s. The side porches, where the stalls were located, have been preserved. They have now been converted into galleries to display the Foundation’s Collection on a rotating basis. The large central space, formerly occupied by open stalls, now houses the Mural de les quatre estacions (Mural of the Four Seasons) and two installations: La cabana (The Hut) and L’era (The Threshing Floor).

These three works were conceived especially for the Espai Guinovart. They are centred around Agramunt, the territory, its landscape and its people. From the imagination centred on the locality, a universal vision is created that deals with themes such as the cycle of life or the habitat in relation to nature.

"Architecture is not like sculpture. It is a living thing. It is experienced in sections and is reconstructed in the head of each of us. It should be experienced on different days, hours, and moods." With this premise Albert Viaplana, together with Helio Piñón, revolutionised contemporary Barcelona and opened the doors to a new way of understanding public space. One of the major projects to demonstrate this is the Plaça dels Països Catalans of Barcelona (1981-1983), opposite the Estació de Sants.

Viaplana and Piñón designed a space from cement, without vegetation and with two large copper sheet roofs. They sought out a timeless and minimalist proposal, expressed in abstract, simple and anonymous lines, so that anyone could use it. This project, at the forefront of architectural deconstructivism, earned them the FAD Prize for architecture.

The Plaça dels Països Catalans became the model for the new public squares promoted in the 1980s by the City Council, known as "hard squares", which at the time caused public controversy for their coldness. But beyond the abstraction, the square is full of human and poetic details like the silhouette of a cat on the roof, of natural size, made with metal plate; an opening in the manner of a window; and some fountains.

The Mediterranean climate - long dry summers, mild winters and rain in spring and autumn - is found on only 5% of the Earth’s surface, in five regions. These are present in the Jardí Botànic de Barcelona (Botanical Garden of Barcelona), opened in 1999 and located on the hill of Montjuïc. Arranged over 14 hectares of gently sloping ground are botanical collections from Australia, Chile, California, South Africa and the Mediterranean basin, including the Canary Islands.

The area has been designed by the architects Carles Ferrater and Josep Lluís Canosa, the landscape architect Bet Figueras, the biologist Joan Pedrola and the horticulturist Artur Bossy. Within what seems to be a large, natural amphitheatre, the planting is organised geographically, as well as being grouped for ecological affinities. The designers took advantage of the terrain in order to create the areas and roads while avoiding excessive earth movement.

Notable among its objectives is the conservation, documentation and dissemination of the natural heritage of Catalonia. For this reason, the grounds also houses the building of the Institut Botànic de Barcelona (Botanic Institute of Barcelona), which has an important library and one of the largest herbariums in Catalonia.
Montjuïc botanical garden exists side-by-side with the Jardí Botànic Històric (Historic Botanical Garden), opened in 1941 in the Foixarda area. Its location promotes the growth of the Euro-Siberian species of plants. In 1986, it had to close because it was affected by the construction of the Olympic facilities, although it reopened in 2003.

Located in the heart of La Rambla, the Mercat de Sant Josep, known as La Boqueria, is one of the most popular areas in the old town of Barcelona. It even receives more visitors each day than the Sagrada Família. The current building dates from 1836, but its commercial function dates back to the 12th century.

On the area of the Pla de la Boqueria, an open-air street market was established where the farmers and traders from the surrounding villages would come together to sell their products. This was set up outside the city walls, in front of the Portal de la Boqueria (the Boqueria Gate), to save themselves the tax on bringing goods into the city.

The space where the market is held today is on the site of the former Convent of Sant Josep, founded by the Discalced Carmelites in 1586. It was demolished in 1835 and in its place was planned the construction of a monumental square that would have been the largest in Europe, of which the neoclassical portico is preserved. It was decided to move the market inside on a temporary basis, but eventually it was moved there permanently. It was expanded into the surrounding area, including the site of the Convent of Sant Joan de Jerusalem, from the 14th century, which had been knocked down.

In 1914, responding to the demands of vendors and shoppers, the market was enclosed with a metal and glass roof, using iron as the architectural element. Even so, La Boqueria is unlike the other public covered markets in Barcelona, such as the Born (1876) or the Mercat de Sant Antoni (1882), which were purpose-built from new. It is dominated by a hybrid architecture that explains the unique history of what was the first market to have existed in Barcelona.

The Torre Glòries (The Glòries Tower), a modern office building located at the entrance of the 22@ (the technological district of Barcelona), has altered the city’s skyline since 2005. It is the work of French architect Jean Nouvel, who is inspired by the images of a geyser, the architecture of Gaudí and the mountain of Montserrat. A contemporary lighthouse that attracts the interest of locals and tourists in equal measure.

Rising from two elliptical, concrete cylinders, one inside the other, the Torre Agbar measures 142 metres high and is covered by two "skins". The innermost is an aluminium plate painted with earth tones, blues, greens and greys. The outermost is a transparent and translucent wall made up of nearly 60,000 sheets of glass. Thanks to this double façade an air chamber is created that allows the heating of the building to be delivered and provide ventilation. The glass used are pieces of a brie-soleil, a system that controls the sun's rays depending on the outside temperature.

These characteristics make the Torre Agbar an original, intelligent and sustainable building, the three principles on which Nouvel’s project is based. It is especially notable on weekend nights, when 4,500 points of LED light (the most efficient and least polluting system) illuminate the façade with colour.

With more than 300 works, the Fundació Antoni Tàpies (Barcelona) has the most comprehensive collection of the Catalan artist, which reflects all the creative periods of the artist. Driven by Antoni Tàpies, the Foundation is a Museum and cultural centre that also works for the study and promotion of contemporary art.

Including paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and books, it displays all aspects of Tàpies’ artistic activity. The collection includes a selection of drawings and portraits from the 1940s (Creu de paper de diari - Newsprint Cross), an important example of the matter works of the 1950s and 1960s (Forma negra sobre quadrat gris - Black form on grey square) and a significant representation of the object works of the late sixties and early seventies (Palla i fusta - Straw and wood).

The visitor will discover the different typologies, techniques and materials used by Tàpies: works made of rubber-foam and spray, varnishes and sculptures in refractory clay and objects and sculptures made with metallic plates or bronze.

The Fundació Antoni Tàpies is located in a modernista building designed by the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner. This construction is unique as it was the first in the Eixample district to combine the use of exposed brick and iron within the urban setting. Currently the building is crowned by the Núvol i cadira (Cloud and chair) sculpture by Tàpies himself, a work which has become a symbol of the Foundation.

The Natural Sciences Museum of Barcelona is located in the Parc del Fòrum. Built by the architects Herzog and de Meuron in 2004, the museum occupies 9,000 m2 and is considered, architecturally, to be one of the most iconic buildings in the city.

In the entrance hall is the most emblematic piece on display in the museum, the skeleton of a whale that was found on a beach in Llançà in 1862. By popular vote, it was named Brava.

The narrative of the permanent exhibition is the interpretation of the present-day Earth as the result of the interaction between the planet’s chemical and physical environment and living beings. All this is shown in an educational way and through tactile screens and display cases with the museum’s collection – fossils, naturalised animals, plants, algae, rocks and minerals. There are also areas dedicated to fungi and the microscopic world, including the reproduction of viruses and microbes. A total of 4,500 of the over 4 million pieces the museum owns are exhibited.

The Natural Sciences Museum of Barcelona is an institution with over 140 years of history. It started off with the legacy of the collections of the naturalist Francesc Martorell i Peña. In addition to the Fòrum building, the Museum has other sites located in different parts of the city: the Jardí Botànic de Barcelona (Botanical Garden of Barcelona) and the Jardí Botànic Històric (Historical Botanical Garden), situated on Montjuic, the Centre Martorell (Martorell Exhibitions Centre), and the Castell dels Tres Dragons in the Parc de la Ciutadella.

Contemporary art in Barcelona is MACBA. The Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona stands at the heart of the Catalan capital in a Richard Meier building that is itself a work of art. It is located in touching distance of the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB), an reference point for lovers of 20th and 21st century art and culture.

MACBA, which was started in 1995, has established itself internationally as a model in contemporary art. Its collection of 5,500 works, allows a journey to be traced through the main artistic references of today. Beginning with materic abstraction from the 1950s, incorporating works of the European pop art and of the avant-garde of the 1960s and '70s. There are also works around the photographic figurative representation and minimalist sculpture.

Among the most important pieces you can see: Dins el roig, by Albert Ràfols-Casamada; Between the Frames: The Forum, by Antoni Muntadas; La saison des pluies II, by Miquel Barceló; Rinzen, by Antoni Tàpies; Beschwingte Bindungen, by Paul Klee; Thames Circles, by Richard Long, and Atomic Kiss, by Joan Rabascall, among others.

Since 1992, a new Barcelona has been gaining ground, one which has attracted renowned architects and which has made it a benchmark in design. There is the Collserola Tower, by Norman Foster; L'Auditori, by Rafael Moneo; the TNC (National Theatre of Catalonia), by Ricard Bofill; and the Bac de Roda bridge, by Santiago Calatrava.

The Olympic village and the Olympic Ring with the brand-new Palau Sant Jordi, designed by the Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, have given way to other symbols of contemporary Barcelona.

And there are entire neighbourhoods of the city that are linked to postmodern architecture, for example, the 22@, a district of Barcelona within the industrial neighbourhood of Poblenou, which is creating a new urban model based on technology, efficiency and sustainability. Presiding over the area is the Agbar Tower, by Jean Nouvel, and the new Museu del Disseny de Barcelona (Barcelona Design Museum), located in a unique building in the Plaça de les Glòries.

Another centre of modernity is at the heart of El Raval, with the coming together of the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) and the Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB). The two centres bring together the essence of the art and culture in the 20th and 21st century.