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The politician and writer Victor Balaguer, as a man of the Catalan Renaixença, was convinced that culture was the basis for the people’s progress. For this reason, in 1884, he commissioned the first public building in the country intended to function both as a museum and a library, to be built at Vilanova i la Geltrú, and in which to make his art, book and ethnographic collections available to the public.

Currently, the Museum has a collection of more than 8,000 items that include an archaeological and ethnographic collection donated by some illustrious friends of Víctor Balaguer. The highlight being the mummy of a child from ancient Egypt, popularly known as Nesi.

As regards to the art exhibits, part of the original collection can be seen in the Pinacoteca (art gallery) room which recreates the atmosphere of the Fine Arts salons of the 19th century. Pictures by Marià Fortuny, Ramon Martí Alsina, Joaquim Vayreda and Joaquin Sorolla show the bourgeois tastes of the time. Complementing this room are the works by El Greco, Ribera, and Rubens, donated at the beginning by the Prado Museum.

The tour continues through Modernisme, Post-modernisme and Noucentisme with small-format works by Santiago Rusiñol, Ramon Casas, Anglada Camarasa, Francesc Domingo and Xavier Nogués. It also has the most comprehensive collection of informalist art in Catalonia that comes from the first Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art.

As for the bibliographic collection, it is one of the richest of the 19th century in Catalonia, with more than 50,000 books and a total of 100,000 documents. Among these are the collected letters of Víctor Balaguer.

El convent de Sant Bartomeu de Bellpuig ofereix un gran exemple de la transició del gòtic tardà al renaixement . Al mateix temps, ofereix una visió de com l'individu buscava la transcendència del seu poder i honor més enllà de la mort.

Ramon Folc de Cardona-Anglesola, baró de Bellpuig i virrei a Nàpols i Sicília, volia un escenari solemne per al seu mausoleu . Per això, el 1507, va patrocinar la construcció d’un convent franciscà a la part superior de l’antiga capella de Sant Bartomeu. D’aquí que, en la decoració, hi ha un notable contrast entre l’austeritat franciscana i la noble esplendor que aporta el mecenatge de la família.

L’edifici, de forma rectangular, s’organitza al voltant de dos claustres. Al més petit dels dos hi ha un element amb un gran valor artístic: la galeria del primer pis, formada per deu columnes en espiral. Cal destacar l'escala de cargol del campanar, l'escala principal, la sala capitular i el mirador del Duc (mirada del duc).

Tot i així, l’element més monumental va ser el mausoleu del baró de Bellpuig , inicialment allotjat dins de l’Església però que ara es pot veure a l’església parroquial. Va ser creat el 1524 a partir de marbre de carrara per l'escultor napolità Giovanni Merliano da Nola. Té l'estructura d'un arc triomfal i va acompanyat de motius al·legòrics en referència a la personalitat del difunt. Per la seva qualitat, és una de les millors obres renaixentistes de Catalunya. 

An imposing building next the River Ebro is a testament from the 14th century to the history of Tortosa. The Cathedral of Santa Maria, together with the Castle of La Suda and the Royal Colleges, forms the most notable architectural complex in the city.

Standing on the same spot as had previously been a Roman forum, a mosque and a Romanesque cathedral, is the current Cathedral of Santa Maria, whose construction began in 1347 following the classic Gothic style. Nevertheless, it includes later elements such as the Baroque façade completed in 1757.

Most notable is the central nave and cloister, with a major exhibition of carved gravestones, and the chapel of La Mare de Déu de la Cinta, in the Baroque style.

At the same time, one cannot ignore the rich sculptural and pictorial heritage of the Cathedral of Tortosa, starting with the altarpiece of Mare de Déu de l’Estrella (Virgin of the Star - 14th century) which presides over the main altar. Other Gothic altarpieces have occupied the walls of the Basilica such as the Virgin of the Angels, by Pere Serra (currently in the MNAC), or that of the Transfiguration, attributed to the workshop of Jaume Huguet.

The latter is one of the star exhibits of the Cathedral Museum, which displays nearly 200 pieces of religious art accumulated over nine centuries. Here you can see paintings, sculptures, tapestries, objects in precious metals and a valuable collection of codices.

In 887 Guifré el Pilós (Wilfred the Hairy) founded the monastery of Sant Joan de Ripoll which was later known as Sant Joan de les Abadesses. And, for nearly 60 years between the 9th and 10th centuries, it was the only female monastery in Catalonia.

The first abbess was the daughter of Wilfred the Hairy, Emma of Barcelona. This community of Benedictine nuns remained until 1017 when the nuns, accused of leading a life which was hardly exemplary, were expelled. Subsequently, the monastery was occupied by a male community of Augustinian canons until the 16th century and then went on to be ruled by the archpriest until the 19th century.

The monastic enclosure that we see today has undergone modifications over time. The original Romanesque church was renovated in the 12th century in the monumental architectural style of the models in South-West France and it was partly reconstructed after the 1428 earthquake. Inside, one cannot miss the Santíssim Misteri or Holy Mystery, the only preserved Romanesque sculpture in Catalonia that remains in situ.

Attached to the Church is the Gothic cloister (15th century) and the Chapel of Dolors (18th century), with the baroque cupola by the sculptor Jacint Morató. Also preserved is the old Abbey Palace, 14th-15th century, which today houses the Interpretation Centre of the Myth of Count Arnau as this legendary character was connected to the first community of nuns at the Abbey.

The monastery museum, open since 1975 in the old rectory, displays a collection of paintings, sculptures, textiles and metalwork from the 8th century until the 20th century, most of which was designed for liturgical worship.

Between 75,000 and 40,000 years ago, the cliff of Capelló was a shelter for Neanderthals, an extinct species of hominid who were organised into small communities of hunter-gatherers. Thousands of years later, Abric Romaní revealed to archaeologists what life was like for a species who shared common evolutionary ancestry with modern man.

In terms of the number and the importance of the findings, Abric Romaní has become one of the principal Middle Palaeolithic sites on the Iberian Peninsula. Thanks to these discoveries, it is possible to reconstruct the modus vivendi of these communities and their interaction with the natural environment in which they lived.

In addition, Abric Romaní, which is still in the process of excavation, has, for the first time allowed us to determine (for Neanderthal groups) the occupation strategies, the structure of their dwellings, subsistence strategies, the technologies of fire and tools, etc. Notable among the remains recovered are scores of wooden objects (the largest collection in the world with such an ancient chronology), close to 200 fireplaces and numerous tools made of stone and bone that demonstrate some very technically advanced production systems.

Abric Romaní forms part of the NEAN-Capellades Prehistoric Park, which includes some 20 archaeological sites in total, and acts as a centre for the dissemination of prehistory and the promotion of cultural tourism.

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.

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.

Perched in the Puig de Sant Andreu, in the Baix Empordà, the Iberian town of Ullastret is the largest Iberian settlement discovered so far in Catalonia. The city, flanked by towering walls, served as the capital of all the indiketa territory, which exploited agriculture, livestock farming, mines and quarries. It was the centre of an important commercial interchange with the Greek city of Empúries, which exported its products and also imported foreign production. Ullastret dominates the landscape of the Empordà and has been testimony to one of the most important archaeological finds of recent years: that of the severed heads of Ullastret.

This exceptional discovery was made in the year 2012, when the excavations in a stretch of the street uncovered 15 human cranial fragments, among which were two embedded heads. It is a ritual of Celtic origin which had already been described by classical authors such as Posidonius of Apamea or Diodorus of Sicily, and which consisted of displaying the heads of the defeated enemy as trophies of war.

Although the Ullastret complex consists of two Iberian villages, it is only the ruins of Puig de Sant Andreu, which are visitable, corresponding to the last stage of occupation of the town by the indiketes (3rd century BC). The route allows you to view the largest and oldest muralla ibèrica in Catalonia, reinforced with six circular towers.

Visitors can ‘enter’ the rectangular houses, from the most modest up to the constructions made for the most important families of the Iber aristocracy, walk down the cobbled street and discovered the water collection system using cisterns in the rock, a copy of those still existing in the Greek colony in Empúries. The spiritual life of the ancient inhabitants of Ullastret has left its mark with the remains of three temples, from the 4th and the 3rd century BC. The complex is completed with the Ullastret Monographic Museum, which allows interpretation of the site and also to find out about the Iberian culture in the north-east of Catalonia. The Ullastret complex is one of the branches of the Museum of Archaeology of Catalonia.

This house in the centre of Moià is a 17th-century manorial building with a remarkable architectural and artistic value. But if there is one thing that makes it special, it is that in around 1660 Rafael Casanova, was born here, hero of the defence of Barcelona on 11th September 1714.

Casanova was the son of a well-to-do family of Moià who made their money from trading in grain and wool. Their wealth can be seen in the features of the home, especially in the richly decorated interior. Made up of ground floor, first floor and attic, with a rear garden and basement, highlights include the main façade with sgraffito (decorated plasterwork).

Currently, the house is home to an exhibition which shows the keys to conflict of 1714: from the outbreak of an international war to determine the successor to the Spanish Crown after the death of the heirless Carles II, until the fall of the city of Barcelona at the hands of the Bourbon troops, Rafael Casanova was responsible for the defence of the city as a Mayor and Commander-in-Chief of La Coronela, the armed forces of Barcelona.

Beyond speculations about whether the building was a mausoleum or a villa during the Roman era, the roman complex of Centcelles (Constantí) is unique for its 4th century mosaics. Exceptional architectural testament of the late-Roman period in Catalonia, since the year 2000, it has been included in the set of monuments of the ancient Tarraco which were declared a Unesco World Heritage Site.

The oldest remains of Centcelles are from a small rural building from the 2nd -1st Century BC, which later became a magnificent villa with a baths complex. The most notable area is the closed circular room with a dome where the mosaics are found. These are considered to be the oldest Christian-themed dome mosaics of the Roman world and are exceptional for their good state of preservation. They represent several scenes, organised into three areas: a hunt on the lower section, biblical scenes from the Old and the New Testament in the central part and figures of the four seasons at the top.

From the study of these mosaics and mural paintings, one could think that the villa was a mausoleum. Even so, its interpretation is still uncertain. The first hypothesis of the researchers suggested that the mosaics made reference to the tomb of Constant, son of the Emperor Constantine the Great. More recent researches, however, think that Centcelles was the late Roman villa of a notable person in the ecclesiastical or civil hierarchy.