Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC), Barcelona

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On a hill overlooking Placa d' Espana, and with views of Temple de Familia Sagrada in the distance, the Museu has a wonderful collection o fRomaneque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Modern art. Llimona, Gaudi, Dali, Picasso, Casas, Velazquez, Rivera and Zubaran to name a few. The museum itself is spacious with comfortable seating. Closed on Monday and early Sunday, unless it is a holiday.

This museum is situated on Montjuic hill overlooking all of Barcelona. Come early come late this place is always packed. Having one of the best if not the best collection of Catalunian art in the world. The museum is easy to navigate with great rooms showing priceless amount of art. Spent about 3 hours here and saw everything in a non rushed way .... A must do while in Barcelona. Also the view from the entrance of the museum is beautiful but be warned it's a steep walk from the metro Espanya stop but there is sections of electric stairs .... We took bus number #50 from the Espanya metro stop which left us about a block away. Entrance fee was 8 euro's.

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Unfortunately, I did not have the chance to visit this museum dedicated to classic and modern Catalan art. But even if you are not that much interested in art, you could do the same as I did: Enjoy the building and the terraces.
The building itself is called the Palau de Montjuic and really has the majestic appearance of a palace. It was designed by Eugenio Cendoya and Endric Catà and built between 1926 and 1929. The style is classicist and was inspired by the Spanish Renaissance, the style in use in Spain's most prosperous centuries.

Since 1934 the Palau Nacional has housed the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catanlunya which is the most important Romanesque art collection in the world. It includes murals peeled off the walls of tiny churches in the Pyrenees in the province of Lleida and brought down by donkey. Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque art can also be found here.

From the Plaça d'Espanya, the view up to the Palau Nacional is breathtaking. I suggest taking the walk up (escalators make it easier).

The Palau Nacional is home to a series of fountains that are located on the steps leading down towards the Plaça d'Espanya. When these fountains are turned on and the light glows through them it's quite a site. See my tip on the fountains of Palau Nacional and my travelogue with more pictures of the Weekly water show.

This is situated above the Plaça d'ESPANYA, MONTJUIC.

This stately palace, reminder of the World Exhibition of 1929 houses the unique collection ROMANESQUE ART of CATALUNYA.

These exceptional works of art come from the Pyrenees churches from remote areas such as VALL DE BOI.

In the Museum you find: frescos, painted wood panels, altar clothes and wood statues....

Very worthy of your visit! I can recommend it to you all!

Oh, how I love this museum: quiet, not too many visitors, creaking parquet floors and wonderful arrangement of colours for the splendid works of art.

A real joy to roam the rooms.....which I did....

The collection holds 19th and 20th Century Art and is the most important collection of Catalan art dating from the first half of the 19th century up to the end of the 1930s.

Durings the course of this period, so productive as it was in the development of modern Catalan art, a series of artistic movements emerged one after another which were to cast their roots firmly and uniquely in this country: Neoclassicisn, Realism. Modernisme, Noucentisme, the 1917 generation and the AVANT-GARDE.

The collections of this museum bear witness to these creative circles and show, chronologically, the works of their leading artrists.

Do you like this painting as I do??

RAMON CASAS painted it in 1897.
He lived in Barcelona 1866 - 1932 and gave this painting the title: RAMON CASAS I Pere Romeu en un tandem.

I wanted to share my enthousiasm with you....

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I only went to see this on my second visit to Barcelona - one of the advantages of all my previous travel I think was opening my appreciation and understanding to these things to see in the world and in Europe - appreciating even what Romanesque and Gothic means! - so rereading the sights to see in Barcelona, especially in the Rough Guide which seems to have so much information on what there is to see in not only an area but also what to see in the major centres - that I was itching to get to this museum!

And it was truly a pleasure!

The Rough Guide writes of this museum as being 'one of Spain's great museums', the 'best art museum in Barcelona with a splendid collection of medieval paintings', and the 'Romanesque collection is superb, without a doubt the best of its kind in the world'.

AND TO ME AN ABSOLUTE GLORY OF THIS MUSEUM IS THAT PHOTO TAKING IS ALLOWED!! NO FLASH - ANY PHOTOS OF ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING BUT NO FLASH! THIS S A WONDERFUL THING WHEN YOU LOVE ART AND WANT TO TAKE THE MEMORIES WITH YOU!! See my travelogues for some examples of photos I took opportunity to get!

The museum spans Catalan art from the Middle Ages up to the 1940s and makes this museum one of the largest in Europe. Three main sections of amazing art: Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque and Renaissance.

The Romanesque section is the highlight and a privilege to see. Another joy is the fact that photography is freely allowed here - but please absolutely no use of flash of course! From the 11th century the Catalan villagers of the highPyrenees builty sturdy stone churches which were then lavishly painted in vibrantly coloured frescoes depicting Christ in majesty, angels and Apostles, martyrs and mythical animals. To save them from robbery and degradation, these were painstakingly removed early in the 20th century and remounted in mock church interiors within the museum. The collection is laid out chronologically with stone sculptures from the 6th to the 10th century, but the bulk dates from the 13th century.

The Gothic collection is also extensive, ranging over the whole of Spain from the 13th to the 15th centuries. The evolution of Romanesque to the Gothic period was marked by a move from mural painting to painting on wood, and by the depiction of lives and deaths(and rather gruesome depictions) of the saints and later portraits of kings and patrons of the arts.

The Baroque and Renaissance works are represented in a collection bequeathed to the city of Barcelona. Many of the major European artists from the 15th to 18th centuries are represented: Rubens, Goya, Zubaran, Quentin Massys and Lucas Cranach.

Open everyday except Monday. This museum is open from 10am to 7pm most days, 9pm Thursdays, 2.30 pm Sundays - without shutting for the typical Spanish lunchbreak!