Buildings from more than 2000 years of history have been preserved in Barcelona: from Roman times to the Gothic era, from Modernisme, as the Catalan Art Nouveau is called here, to modern and imposing buildings.
Many of the monuments in Barcelona are famous landmarks and real attractions for visitors. A number of buildings that you can visit today as top sights in Barcelona are famous far beyond the borders of Spain, their architects are groundbreaking for their and subsequent epochs.
The Sagrada Familia is the best known and most impressive attraction in Barcelona: a "must see". Here you can book tickets for guided tours with skip the line and read about the symbolism of the architect Antoni Gaudí.
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What's going on behind the scenes at Camp Nou? What fascinates millions of people in Barça? Here you can find out. Read about the history of the stadium and book the ticket for visiting the stadium.
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With its famous roof, the house is one of the most impressive modernist buildings. Here you can find out why you should visit Casa Milà twice.
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The roof of Casa Batlló is like a dragon's back. The building is one of the most beautiful and peculiar buildings of the Catalan Art Nouveau. You will talk about this visit for a long time.
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What the locals call "El Palau" is rightly a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Palau is one of the most impressive modernist buildings with wonderful acoustics in the halls.
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As a tourist, the Hospital Sant Pau is a pleasure to visit: it is one of the most beautiful modernist building complexes. The historic hospital area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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Casa Vicens is the first building designed by the young Antoni Gaudí and is well worth seeing! The house is the cornerstone of his later works.
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The renovation of the architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch has given Casa Amatller cultural and historical importance. You should not miss a taste of the Amatller chocolates in the café.
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One of Antoni Gaudí's early masterpieces, partly reminiscent of a Venetian palace. The Palau Güell is located in the Raval district, a few meters from the Rambla.
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The Catedral de la Santa Creu i Santa Eulàlia is in the middle of the Gothic District. Its magnificent gothic interior has an extraordinarily pretty cloister.
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The Torre de Bellesguard is one of Gaudi's works that is awarded only little importance. For sure without good reason, since you can see several elements in the Bellesguard, that he perfected in his later works. Bellesguard was Gaudi's only work for which he had to search for a building contractor. With this building, Gaudi executed a tribute to the middle age and interpreted the gothic in his own way.
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The 60 meter high Columbus monument offers an interesting view of the port, the old town of Barcelona and the sea. In the basement you can taste the latest Catalan wines.
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Visiting the Santa Maria del Mar is a must when you are in Barcelona. The church was built in only 55 years, so it is purely gothic and not a blend of different architectural styles.
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The Castell de Montjuïc houses the military museum and offers an astonishing view over the city. At the foot of the rocky hill, there are many attractions such as the Poble Espanyol, an amusement park, the MNAC and parks.
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The Colònia Güell has been declared a cultural heritage. The crypt is the unfinished church of Antoni Gaudí, but it is a highlight in Gaudí's work. Here you can get tickets to enter the crypt and visit the settlement and the museum.
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The German Pavilion was built by Mies van der Rohe for the 1929 World's Fair. You see modern architecture, the free and open floor plan. The Barcelona chair, which can still be found unchanged in many waiting rooms, is considered a milestone in modern design.
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The 142 meter high office tower is a symbol of Barcelona. The Torre Glòries shimmers in a wide variety of colors depending on the incidence of light. It is even illuminated at night. The viewing platform on the 33rd floor offers a great view.
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The Monastery of Pedralbes is one of the prettiest examples of Catalan gothic in Barcelona. It was built in the early 14th century and shows the everyday life of nuns. Religious art from the 14th to the 20th century is displayed in the monastery museum. The pretty gardens are a nice place to relax and stay a little while.
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The former Benedictine monastery of Sant Pau del Camp is the oldest preserved church in Barcelona today. The construction of the Romanesque church building is suspected in the late 9th century.
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Barcelona won a new attraction with the opening of the shopping centre "Las Arenas". There are six floors with different shops, a fitness centre, a cinema, a museum and several bars and restaurants. The facade of the former bull ring was restored.
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The Gran Teatre del Liceu is one of the most important opera houses in Europe and one of the most beautiful attractions of Barcelona. Book a guided tour through the opera house.
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The Arc de Triomf served as the entrance to the World Exhibition in 1888. A car-free street leads from here to the Parc de la Ciutadella.
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Architect and designer Josep Puig i Cadafalch had no doubts about breaking the norms of classicism and building a grand building inspired by nothing less than Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria.
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Casa Calvet has one quality that sets it apart from all the other buildings designed by the architectural genius Antoni Gaudí: it is absolutely unspectacular.
More information...Did you know that Barcelona is the city with the most objects on the UNESCO World Heritage List? Gaudí has his own entry on the list "Works by Gaudí".
The building history in Barcelona is unmistakable: you will find buildings from Roman times in Barcelona. Monumental remains of the former city wall as well as parts of the Temple of Augustus can be visited today. The Gothic also left clear traces in Barcelona, such as the Santa Maria del Mar and the Cathedral of La Seu.
"Modernisme" is often translated as "modernity". That's just wrong! Modernisme is the Catalan Art Nouveau that led to imposing buildings, especially between 1878 and 1910. The buildings are modern, because most of them do not require air conditioning, for example, and still have a good indoor climate. But despite the similarity in name, they have nothing to do with modern glass and concrete buildings.
If you stroll through the streets of Barcelona, ââyou will always experience architectural surprises: the Modernisme (1878 - 1910), which is omnipresent in Barcelona, ââhas produced many unusual and unconventional buildings, above all the buildings of the world-famous architect Antoni Gaudi and his Casa Milà, Casa Batlló and above all his life's work, the Sagrada Familia.
Of course, there are several representatives of such an important epoch of architecture: Lluis Domènech i Montaner, who built the Hospital Sant Pau and the Palau de la Música, among other things, and Josep Puig i Cadafalch, whose impressive building Casa de les Punxes.
Significant impulses to erect modern and beautiful buildings in Barcelona came from the 1929 World Exhibition and the 1992 Olympic Games in particular. The German Pavilion at the World Exhibition by Mies van der Rohe is considered one of the first significant examples of modern architecture.
For urban renewal in the course of the Olympic Games, it was possible to free oneself from the dreariness of the Franco era and to continue the tradition of creativity that was lived in modernism with modern styles. Not always undisputed, but that is also what makes many buildings so appealing.
With this change, modernism and "functionalism" were introduced into the cityscape of Barcelona. As in many other major European cities, the celebrities of modernity also realized themselves in Barcelona. In Barcelona, ââthis epoch brought with it, above all, a large-scale conversion of industrial wasteland and factories. New parks, buildings and landmarks of the city were created.
The urban area "El Diagonal Mar" around the "Forum" is particularly worth seeing. In the course of the urban development "@22" and the "Superillas", the most modern buildings fit into a unique new urban planning.
Notable buildings from this era:
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