MNACMy rating: 5 stars+ The MNAC (Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya), which towers over the Plaça Espanya, has an amazing architecture and a collection of 1,000 years of Spanish and Catalan art history. You can spend so much time in the museum with the English language audio guide! You’re also rewarded with a great view.
- Apart from the “climb” (for which there are escalators, too), I can’t think of any negative points here.
Last updated: 21 Feb 2020 | Celine Mülich
Price of admission: 12 Euro (for 2 days) reduced price 8,40 Euro (students, Families, Groups) free admission for children under the age of 16, senior citizens over the age of 65, unemployed peoples. Free entrance for everybody: Saturdays after 3.00 p.m. and first Sunday of the month 2 Euro for the roof terrace 18 Euro Kombiticket for MNAC and Poble Espanyol
Articket: free admission (buy online) BarcelonaCard: free admission (buy online) Audio guide: 4 Euro (available in English)
Tours: Permanent exhibition: “1,000 years of Catalan art”, 1. Sunday in a month: Catalan (12.00 a.m.) Spanish (12.15 p.m.), free of charge, max. 30 persons; Exhibition: Saturday: Spanish (11.00 a.m.) and Catalan (12.30 p.m.) free of charge Private tours:(00 34) 93 622 03 75 orgrups@museunacional.cat
How to get there: L1 (red Linie) and L3 (green Linie), Plaça Espanya
And what’s there to see?
The MNAC has paintings and sculptures from 1,000 years of Catalan culture. From Roman church frescoes to gothic sculptures, renaissance and baroque paintings, all the way to sculptures and paintings by modern artists – including the Thyssen collection, which features international artists such as Rubens or Holbein.
The MNAC offers an informative audio guide, which does a good job of explaining the unusual church frescoes and the most important works of art. The medieval section also gives you a chance of looking at the façade of a church using a 3D screen.
The architecture itself, inside and out, is spectacular! Especially the dome on the second floor and the ballroom, which measures 5,000 m² (over 53,000 square feet!) and can hold up to 20,000 people.
A visit to the MNAC is rounded out by a great view of the Plaça Espanya. Enjoy the view of Barcelona with some sunshine and street music.
Current exhibitions: LIBERXINA: Pop and new artistic behaviours, 1966-1971 until April 22th, 2019 Bartolomé Bermejo util May 19th, 2019
Future exhibitions: Antoni Fabrés May 31st till September 29th, 2019
Photogallery of the MNAC
A history of the MNAC
This palace was built in Barcelona in 1926 for the World’s Fair of 1929/1930. It was the event’s main building and behind it, on the Montjuic, the other 29 participating nations built their own pavilions.
The Palau Nacional showed between 4000 and 5000 Spanish works of art during the World’s Fair. The idea of opening a museum inside these halls formed as a result of the exhibition. The museum finally became a reality on November 11th, 1934: The Museu d'Art de Catalunya opened its doors to show Catalan art from medieval to baroque times.
As part of a new museum law, the Museu d'Art de Catalunya (with Roman and gothic art and works from the renaissance and baroque eras) and the Museu d'Art Modern (with 19th and 20th century art) were merged into one single National Museum. The result is the MNAC and its 1,000 years of art history.