The Basílica Expiatòria de la Sagrada Família (Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Sagrada Familia) is one of the most remarkable examples of Catalan ‘modernisme’ (Art Nouveau) and has become a symbol of Barcelona. Undoubtedly it is the unfinished monument that attracts most visitors in the world. Moreover, Antoni Gaudí poured all his efforts and knowledge into the project right up until his death, although he only saw completion of the crypt, the apse and the façade of the Nativity with one of the bell towers. Together, these areas were declared World Heritage Site in 2005.
Construction of the Sagrada Familia began in 1882 with the crypt located under the apse, according to a preliminary neo-Gothic design. When the commission was handed over to Gaudí, he completely changed the design and adapted the project to his naturalist ideals. One of the treasures of the crypt is the Roman-style mosaics on the floor. Another feature that cannot be missed is the framed altarpiece dedicated to the Holy Family by the sculptor Josep Llimona. And it is precisely in this intimate and mystic setting that Antoni Gaudí is buried, specifically in the chapel of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Once the crypt and apse were finished, Gaudí started on a more ambitious and complex project based on detailed symbolism and great formal construction innovations based on the parabolic arch. This led to the Nativity façade. According to Gaudí: "If instead of creating this decorated, ornate and bombastic façade, I had begun with the Passion, hard, bare and bone-like; people would have expressed disapproval". Thus he turned the façade into a detailed stone book relating the episodes of Jesus’s childhood.
After Gaudí’s death, the building went through decades of slow evolution. With the revival of interest in the work of Gaudí, the number of visitors has greatly increased in recent years and construction work on the temple has advanced quickly, following the models and notes left by the master. The interior of the nave of the church is a new attraction and it is hoped that in 2026 the building of Gaudí’s dreams will be completed.
Located in the heart of the city of Barcelona, the Parc de la Ciutadella is not only a reference point as a green space in the city: its great diversity of elements (museums, lake, waterfall, century-old vegetation, sculptures, etc.) make it especially valued by residents and visitors to the city. Built in the second half of the 19th century on the occasion of the Universal Exposition of 1888, the current park occupies the grounds of the citadel which Felip V ordered to be built in 1714 after the War of Succession.
Of the pavilions built for the Universal Exposition, the Castell dels Tres Dragons (headquarters of the Museum of Zoology of Barcelona), the Umbracle (the plant house), and the Hivernacle (greenhouse) survive. But where all eyes are focused is on the lake and the monumental waterfall. A young Antoni Gaudí took part in the construction of the fountain, topped by a wrought iron sculpture.
In the old Plaza de Armas of the fortress is the seat of the Parliament of Catalonia and very close by, you can see a copy of El desconsol (Desolation), by Josep Llimona. This replica is the most prominent of the hundreds of sculptures that the visitor can see in the Park.
The main entrance to la Ciutadella along the Passeig de Lluís Companys, which is headed by the imposing modernista Triumphal Arch and which forms one of the most beautiful urban postcards of the city.
For many years, the Ciutadella was the only park in the city, and the first of those currently existing which was designed specifically as a public space. Its versatility turns the green lung of Barcelona into a stage for leisure and cultural activities.
Santa Caterina, opened in 1848, was the first covered market in Barcelona. Since 2005, the roof has become its stand-out element. It is this last alteration which has made the market a benchmark for contemporary architecture and a point of interest for tourists. The undulating and colourful roof has already become a new symbol of Barcelona.
In 1997, the architects Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue reformed the market that was originally designed by Josep Mas i Vila. The project maintained 3 out of the 4 original facades and raises up a skeleton of iron, steel and concrete, to the interior of the building, standing between the structure of wooden arches that form the ceiling.
But certainly the starring role of the new market goes to the roof: a huge wavy structure covered by 200,000 ceramic hexagons in 67 different colours. The work of ceramicist Toni Cumella, it represents the fruit and vegetables sold from the market stalls and fills the area with light and colour.
The launch of the market has helped to re-energise the neighbourhood. Now, brought together under the same roof as the stalls of fresh produce, is a supermarket, restaurants and the display of the remains of the old Dominican convent.
In the old building of the Casa de la Caritat in Barcelona, in a totally modern facility, there is a cultural centre of European renown. It is the Centre of Contemporary Culture (CCCB), which since 1994 has been working on creative research and the production of knowledge. It has, as its central focus, the city and urban culture and aims to link the academic world with creativity and citizenship.
It does this through its own projects. The most significant are the thematic exhibitions, which generate debate and awareness around the issues that shape the present. At the same time, it has also instituted forms of cultural exchange such as international discussions, the CCCB Lab, the Kosmopolis literature platform and the Xcèntric project in experimental cinema. All of these are projects which deal with the culture of the 21st century and the great transformations of the digital age in an integrated manner.
The CCCB has a collection (CCCB Archive and Xcentric Archive) where the documentation related to all the projects that have been realised since its inauguration is stored. This archive has been available to everyone since 2008.
Visiting the Centre of Contemporary Culture is to enter a space for reflection about what urban culture is. The same building, remodelled by Helio Piñón and Albert Viaplana, structured around the Pati de les Dones, brings one in. It is advisable to go up to the observation deck before the end of the visit.
During the transformation of the Cathedral of Barcelona in the 14th century, the parishes in the district of Ribera decided to erect a new church that would become one of the major benchmarks of Catalan Gothic.
Alfonso V of Aragon, ‘the benign’, laid the first stone of the temple in March 1329 to crown the conquest of Sardinia and the expansion of the Catalan dominion of the Mediterranean. The Cathedral of the Sea was built in record time: only 54 years. The whole district of Ribera participated with money and by taking, one-by-one, the stones from La Foixarda, the quarry of Montjuïc.
Observed from the outside, Santa Maria del Mar is compact, smooth, without large openings or ornaments. On the other hand, the arrangement is far from the typical configuration of the time, making room for a single open space. And the naves are built in such a way that they seem to be of a single piece.
One must pay special attention to the light. Its structure of a compact block makes it enter precisely on all four sides of the Church, without creating shadows and plays of light typical of Gothic churches. The rose window in the flamboyant style is especially remarkable.
The beauty of Santa Maria del Mar is rational and abstract and has come to captivate great architects such as Le Corbusier.
Located in the heart of the Gothic quarter in Barcelona, the Cathedral building was constructed over a period of 150 years, between the 13th and 15th centuries. The place chosen was the same on which a Romanesque cathedral and, before that, an early paleochristian temple had previously existed. The church is dedicated to the Santa Creu and Santa Eulàlia, the patron saint of the city.
The Cathedral of Barcelona is a beautiful example of Catalan Gothicstyle, far removed from the verticality of the French style. A curiosity of this building is that it has the dome at the foot of the nave, almost in touching distance of the main façade. This was so that the Gallery Royal would be lit equally with the altar.
This dome and façade date from the late 19th century and early 20th century. The façade was built on the occasion of the Universal Exposition of 1888 in the neo-Gothic style.
It is one of the most significant elements of the church along with theGothic cloister (don’t miss the ‘dancing egg' on the day of Corpus Christi, when an empty egg is made to dance on the jet of water in the fountain) and the crypt of Santa Eulalia with the richly sculpted alabaster sarcophagus.
Equally remarkable is the collection of altarpieces, which occupy the inner chapels, among which there is the Altarpiece of the Transfiguration, by Bernat Martorell.
Then there is the choir which is one of the most remarkable sculptural ensembles of the International Gothic style in Catalonia. Begun in the 14th century, in the 16th century it was completed with screens depicting scenes from the Old Testament and the Passion and the heraldic paintings of the choir stall.
Right next to Vic Cathedral, the Episcopal Museum is a reference point for medieval Catalan art and exhibits masterpieces of painting and sculpture from the Romanesque to the Gothic (between the 12th and 15th centuries). The centre, with a collection of more than 29,000 pieces, specialises in liturgical art.
The large Romanesque collection allows one to follow the precise stylistic and iconographic evolution of the Catalan Romanesque. One of the star exhibits in the Museum is the sculpture group of the Descent from the Cross from Erill la Vall. Discovered on an expedition by the Institute of Catalan Studies to Vall de Boí in 1907, this work of the Master of Erill is considered to be one of the most important sculptural groups of the 12th-century Romanesque in Europe.
Just as notable is the Baldachin from the parish church of Ribes, one of the masterpieces the Museum holds. Other items to consider are the altar frontal from Sant Andreu de Sagàs, the frontal from Sant Pere de Ripoll and the Mother of God from Santa Maria de Lluçà.
Aside from its collection, the Museum is also noted for its modern and innovative museum project. For this, in 2001 it was awarded the National Prize for Cultural Heritage for its contribution to the dissemination of medieval Catalan art.
The ‘cradle’ of Catalonia. This is how the monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll is known and no wonder. Founded by Comte Guifré el Pelós (Count Wilfred the Hairy) in the year 879, under the direction of the Abbot Oliba, it became a major religious and cultural centre, with a large and majestic Romanesque church and a scriptorium with great literary production, on a level with other abbeys in Europe during this period
The monastery’s 12th century portalada is the most outstanding feature of the complex. This doorway that welcomed the faithful and curious, is one of the great sculptures of European Romanesque. It is completely sculpted with scenes from the Old Testament and allegories. This is why it became known as "the Bible of stone". Its monumentality bears witness to Ripoll’s years of splendor. It is with good reason that for many years the monastery was also the pantheon of the counts of Besalú and Girona.
The building underwent several stages of enlargement and reconstruction due to the lack of space, fires, an earthquake and plunder.In 1886, the Bishop of Vic, Josep Morgades, commissioned the reconstruction of the monastery to the architect Elies Rogent. Ripoll recovered the church and the cloister of the 11th century monastery with a Romanesque Revival interpretation.
Today, you can visit Santa Maria de Ripoll and a Visitors’ Information Centre has been opened as well as a permanent exhibition focusing on the scriptorium, in which its importance is explained.
Is it possible to feel like a bourgeois of the early 20th century by visiting a Romanesque monastery? Sant Benet de Bages shows how heritage adapts to new uses over time. In this case, a medieval monastery that became the summer residence of Ramon Casas’s family and finally the tourist and cultural centre that it is today.
The first church (pre-Romanesque) was consecrated in 972 with a community of twelve monks. However, it was not until the 12th century that the abbey would experience its period of splendor, with the construction of a new church and the cloister. The latter of these is the true Romanesque star of the group. Between the pillars there are semi-circular arches that rest on double columns with sculpted capitals, all of them original.
As a result of the confiscation by Mendizábal, the monastery was abandoned. It was in the year 1907, that Elisa Carbó i Ferrer, mother of the painter Ramon Casas, bought the land of Sant Benet and adapted the quarters of the monastic community to create a residence. The renovation was designed by another illustrious name: Josep Puig i Cadafalch. Particularly outstanding is the modernista (Art Nouveau) terrace, which occupies part of the old cells of the monks.
Today, through the use of new technologies, the visitor can delve into the building’s monastic history and modernista past. Moreover, in 2007 in the surroundings of the monastery, a complex known as Món Sant Benet was opened, which in addition to disseminating heritage, also focuses on gastronomy and the landscape.
The temples of Sant Pere, Sant Miquel and Santa María, which originally formed the Paleolithic "cathedral" in Egara, have undergone multiple stages of construction that have left their mark in a variety of styles, -from late Roman to Gothic styles- and artistic disciplines. It is, therefore, a monument unique to Catalonia.
The first building is a paleochristian complex that served as the bishopric of Egara, of which there are still vestiges of the temples of Santa Maria and Sant Miquel. The fact that there are three churches has historically been interpreted as a "copy" of the ancient Byzantine model -two churches and a baptistery- but after recent excavations (2000-2007), scholars think that the church of Sant Miquel was not used as a baptistery, but rather that it had a funerary use. Therefore, we find ourselves in a paleochristian cathedral, set out as a miniature city with several outbuildings and temples.
The second stage of construction dates back to the ninth and tenth centuries following the Christian conquest of the territory dominated by the Muslims. Therefore, the style is Pre-Romanesque; there are many signs of this era in the churches that were eventually finished in the third and final stage, by this time the Romanesque (11th-12th centuries).
