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Since 1990, the old steam locomotive depot at Vilanova i la Geltrú has hosted one of the most important railway collections in Europe. More than 60 vehicles from all eras, technologies and countries, including 28 steam locomotives from the late 19th century, make up the bulk of the displays at the Museu del Ferrocarril de Catalunya (Catalonia Railroad Museum).

The history of the Spanish railway can be traced through its collection, starting with a replica of the first train to operate on the Peninsula, the Mataró. You can also see the oldest original locomotive in Spain, the last steam-powered vehicle and the first Talgo train. In addition, there are objects from the railways that explain what the stations were like and how the railway traffic was controlled. Among other items, there is an interlocking lever frame and a signal box originating from the Estació de França in Barcelona.

As well as the technical and historical aspect, the Museum invites you to discover the social and emotional aspects of the world of the train. For this reason, it has been designed as an experience space. And so visitors can go inside the locomotives, travel on the passenger trains and even watch audiovisual projections inside a freight wagon.

The important work of the Museum in preservation and dissemination is demonstrated by its documentation centre, with more than 10,000 photographs, 5,000 bibliographic records and 400 videos. 

To talk about wine in the Penedès is to talk about the identity of an entire region. This symbiosis between history, culture and territory is reflected in the Museum of Wine Cultures of Catalonia (VINSEUM) in Vilafranca del Penedès, the first wine museum in Spain.

VINSEUM was created in 2007 as a space for visitors to experience the culture of wine. It is the conceptual evolution of the Museum of Vilafranca – Wine Museum, which was founded in 1935 to house various collections related to the Penedès. The collection has already exceeded 17,000 items which cover subjects such as archaeology, art (with an important collection of ceramics), ethnology and natural history.

But what has made the Museum into a benchmark is the collection related to viticulture: tools of the field, amphorae, ceramic pitchers, cups made of tin and silver, pieces of glassware from Bohemia, etc. Notable are the wine dioramas that narrate the history of viticulture. Thus, you can see scenes from the wineries of Egypt and Rome or the Monastery of Poblet. In addition to the objects, VINSEUM also has an important documentary collection on vines and wine.

The tour of the permanent exhibition begins on the third floor of the main building, a former royal palace of the Kings of Aragon (12th-13th century). A careful and modern museum display draws the visitor into an immersive tour through the various collections. It even has a multi-sensory module known as the "La Mirada Tàctil" or the Tactile View. The tour ends in the Museum’s Tavern, where you can taste wine or cava.

Nature and Modernisme. This is the pairing that defines the Colònia Güell. Standing among the pine trees is an architectural complex that still preserves the industrial essence of the late 19th and early 20th century and has a star name: Antoni Gaudí.

The colony was built in 1890 on land owned by Eusebi Güell at Santa Coloma de Cervello. The entrepreneur wanted to move the textile industries he owned at Vapor Vell Sants away from labour conflicts that were prevalent in Barcelona at that time.

The complex was structured around the factory, which was equipped with the most advanced technology of the time. As well as the homes of the workers, there were educational, cultural and religious facilities which together formed a "small town".

In addition, Eusebi Güell, a patron of Modernisme in Barcelona, made it unique by hiring some of the best architects of the time. His friend Antoni Gaudí led the project, taking charge of the mapping out the complex and of the Church, of which only the crypt was built (declared a World Heritage Site in 2005). The remainder of the buildings (the school, the cooperative, the parish house and the cultural centre, among others) were the work of Joan Rubió, Francesc Berenguer i Mestres and his son Francesc Berenguer i Bellvehí.

The complex made a display of innovations in construction at the time such as the use of 'trencadís' (mosaics of ceramic shards), iron work and brick. Special attention should be given to the facades of the teacher's house, Ca l’Espinal and Ca l’Ordal, which show that, despite being functional architecture, no detail was overlooked.

In the old district of Sant Joan de Sitges stands the architectural and artistic complex of Maricel, one of the most monumental examples of Noucentisme in Catalonia. It was built by Miquel Utrillo between 1910 and 1918, and had been commissioned by the American magnate Charles Deering, who established his residence here and used it to house his unique collection of Hispanic art.

After going through various uses, in 1970, art came back to the building. On the side facing the sea, the Maricel Museum was opened to display the art collection of Dr Jesús Pérez-Rosales: more than 3,000 Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque pieces, as well as pre-Columbian archaeology artefacts, oriental art, musical instruments, textiles and folk craft.

Today this collection is integrated into the Sitges Art Collection, along with other acquisitions, creating a complete and varied tour through the history of art, from the 10th century to the first half of the 20th century.

Particularly notable are the rooms dedicated to Romanticism (Marià Fortuny), to Noucentisme (Joaquim Sunyer, Pere Jou, Lola Anglada, Enric Casanovas, Ismael Smith, Pau Gargallo) and especially to Modernisme (Santiago Rusiñol, Ramon Casas, Josep Llimona), which has a close connection to Sitges. There is even a room displaying paintings that once decorated the Cau Ferrat Brewery.

One can’t leave the Museum without going through the Sert Room, with its large murals from 1915 dedicated to the First World War.

A 461 metres d'alçada, a la part alta de la serra de la Guàrdia, és fàcil imaginar l'impressionant Castell de Claramunt vigilant i protegit per la conca d' Adena .

Jo, tot i que necessito nombroses destruccions i reconstruccions, és fortalesa del segle X és un dels exemples principals de la xarxa de castells fronterers, que van marcar la línia entre el Comtat de Barcelona i Al-Andalus.

Encomanat dels seus inicis a la casa de Claramunt, el castell esdevenir el centre administratiu dels dominis feus de Cardona-Medinaceli entre els segles XIV i XIX. Tanmateix, no hi ha aletes serioses al segle XX que recupera la seva glòria amb la compra i restauració per part dels seus propis propietaris, la família Miquel .

Té l’estructura típica de castells del segle XII, amb dos recintes que ocupen més de 5.000 m2: el sobirà o recinte superior, amb la zona residencial, la Sala Gòtica i quatre torres, entre les que destaca la torre de conservació; l’altre, el recinte jussà o inferior, assigna els serveis del castell i l’actualització és un gran pati envoltat de muralles.

També es conserven les restes de l’ església romànica de Santa Maria , la primera parròquia de la Pobla de Claramunt.

To study, preserve and disseminate the history of the city; the Museu d’Història de Barcelona (Museum of the History of Barcelona - MUHBA) provides an explanatory showcase of the city through an extensive collection and various outstanding heritage areas. The Museum brings together cultural material that explains the past and the present and this translates into a rich and heterogeneous collection that continues to grow. The MUHBA is a mirror on the many faces of the city: an important historic centre, a new modernista city and a diverse complex of old towns and newly created districts.

The monumental complex of Plaça del Rei has been the foundational core of the Museu d’Història de Barcelona since it was created in 1943. In the ground beneath the Casa Padellàs you can see an important part of ancient Barcino; the visit allows you to stroll through the streets of Roman Barcelona, get close to the walls from the time, enter a laundry from the 2nd century AD, see the remains of the first Christian community of the city, etc. The complex is completed with important medieval buildings such as the Palau Reial Major (Royal Palace) and the Tinell salon. But in addition to these landmarks, the headquarters of MUHBA has a permanent exhibition, displaying pieces about the ancient municipal government, the guilds and brotherhoods of Barcelona, the cotton industry, festive and popular imagery of the city, nineteenth-century Barcelona and the urban reforms.

Over the years, this historic centre has expanded considerably and now includes up to 15 heritage spaces spread around the city. Notable is the Temple of Augustus, the Roman Sepulchral Way, the Call, Park Güell, Santa Caterina, the Turó de la Rovira and Fabra i Coats, among others.

With 42 painted figures and 260 other images carved into the rock, La Roca dels Moros del Cogul, in Les Garrigues, is one of the most outstanding and best-conserved rock-art sites in Catalonia. Amongst the most outstanding scenes depicted are a hunting scene and a phallic dance, an exceptional representation of a ritual event, which lends credence to the idea of the cave being a place for religious practices.

This area of Les Garrigues has been inhabited continuously by humans since the Paleolithic period and the cave was used for about 5000 years as a place of worship. The last hunter-gatherers (8th - 5th millennium BC) left behind paintings known as Levantine art. Later, from the 5th- 2nd millennium BC, Neolithic groups covered up the reliefs in the rock to draw representations of their own beliefs (diverse representations that fall within the classification of schematic art ). Researchers have also identified later inscriptions from the Iberian and Roman periods, though many are illegible.

The Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya (MAC) is organised around its 6 regional centres (Barcelona, CASC, Empúries, Girona, Olèrdola and Ullastret). Of them all, Barcelona is the centre that offers a more cross-cutting view because it explains the social, technological, economic, and religious developments from early man up to the middle ages in Catalonia and the Mediterranean.

Located in the former Pavelló d'Arts Gràfiques, (Graphic Arts Pavilion), built for the 1929 Universal Exposition of Barcelona, the MAC Barcelona renovated 11 rooms between 2010 and 2013. The permanent exhibition, consisting of more than one million original pieces, takes the visitor on a journey through pre-history, protohistory, the Greek and Phoenician colonisation and the establishment of the Roman Empire.

To accompany the visitor, there are learning resources, pictures, scenery and also audiovisual pieces such as the funeral rituals of prehistoric times compared with those of today.

One of the most emblematic pieces of the museum is the statue of the Roman God Aesculapius, now a reproduction because the original was moved to the Empúries centre in 2008. Other notable exhibits include the Paleolithic materials, the 53,200 year-old Neanderthal jaw from Sitges, the Iberian treasure of Tivissa, the Phoenician votive figures, Greek ceramics and the Roman statue found in the street Carrer Paradís, and considered to be the highest quality sculpture recovered from ancient Barcino, the Roman name for Barcelona.

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).

Olèrdola has known the presence of man from the Bronze Age until well into the 20th century. This fact shows the strategic importance of a settlement located on the hill of Sant Miquel, which overlooks the Penedès plain. Olèrdola is currently one of the sites of the Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya (Catalonia Archaeology Museum) and is part of the Iberian Route.

Its position made Olèrdola an ideal place in times of war but barely habitable during periods of peace. For this reason, the site also has known long periods of abandonment.

The population have left their mark. There is an Iberianoppidum, a fortified and walled village. There is also an impressive Roman fortification to control the territory and, in particular, the access road to Tarraco (the old name for Tarragona). Finally, within the group is a medieval town, with Romanesque and Pre-Romanesque churches (Sant Miquel and Santa Maria), the castle and anthropomorphic tombs dug out of the rock.

At the beginning of the 12th century, the decline of Olèrdola and the displacement of the population in the plain began.

Currently preserved are the remains of the Castle, the Church of Sant Miquel, a Romanesque building, and the Necropolis of Sant Miquel, an excellent display of the characteristic burials from the High Middle Ages.