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The museum's palatial building, perched imperiously on Montjuic hill, justifies the trip alone, especially the Oval Hall where the 1992 Olympic ceremonies took place. the Palau Nacional, built in three years and opened in 1929, overlooks Barcelona from atop Montjuic mountain. (map)
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The Palau Nacional was the flagship of the 1929 Exhibition, drawing lots of attention from the crowds that descended upon the Catalan region for the event. It was originally designed by the Catalan architect Josep Puig i Cadalfach, but dictator Primo de Rivera intervened and took the modernist architect off the project. A new design was created by architects Enric Català and Pedro Cendoya in a more 'nationalist' style.
The result is a pompous Neo-Baroque building with a central dome surrounded by a number of towers which has been the home of the Museum of Catalan Art since 1934. The magnificent Oval Hall was renovated in 1992 and opened in time for the summer Olympics, held in Barcelona that year. The rest of the building was renovated at the beginning of the 21st century by architects Gae Aulenti, architect of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, and Josep Benedito.
The MNAC takes visitors on an uninterrupted journey through a thousand years of Catalan art, from the 10th to the 20th centuries, through its four permanent collections: Romanesque and Gothic art, Renaissance and Baroque art, Modern art, photography, drawings, prints and posters and the Catalan Numismatic Department and a gallery featuring work by Picasso.
Romanesque and Gothic art. Pride of place goes to the Romanesque exhibition, the world's finest collection of Romanesque frescoes, altarpieces, and wood carvings, most of them rescued from chapels in the Pyrenees during the 1920s to save them from deterioration, theft, and art dealers. Many, such as the famous Cristo de Taüll fresco (from the church of Sant Climent de Taüll in Taüll), have been reproduced and replaced in their original settings. The holdings of Gothic art illustrate the splendour and the peak of Catalan territorial expansion in Mediterranean Europe at the time.
Renaissance and Baroque art. The exhibitions of Renaissance and Baroque art include part of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection and feature works by major international painters such as El Greco, Zurbarán, Velázquez and Rubens.
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| Portrait of my father. Salvador Dali |
Modern art, photography, drawings, prints and posters and the Catalan Numismatic Department. The museum's collection showcasing art from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries, mainly comprising exhibitions of works by Catalan artists, covering all the artistic genres, including the Catalan Modernimst style (Art Nouveau) movements of modernisme and Noucentisme and the avant-garde.
A dedicated gallery featuring work by Picasso has opened, showcasing nine paintings which are representative of the painter's work.
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PABLO PICASSO
Woman in Hat and Fur Collar (Marie-Thérèse Walter)
Paris, 4 December 1937
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Museum Web site
Oleum Restaurant
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Next : The Poble Espanyol (10), with its “artisans’ village”, was built to show visitors a representative sample of Spanish architecture.
Previous : The Historic Botanic Garden (8)
