Barcelona Sights

  1. Ajuntament

    This town hall has been the seat of city power since the 14th century and has a Catalan Gothic side façade on Carrer de la Ciutat. Belying its blandly renovated, neoclassical front is a spectacular interior featuring a majestic staircase and the splendidly restored Saló de Cent (Chamber of the One Hundred).

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  2. Antic Hospital de la Santa Creu

    Gaudí died at this 15th-century hospital, which now houses Catalonia's national library (take a look at the magnificent vaulted reading room) and an arts school. It has a delightful, if somewhat dilapidated, colonnaded courtyard with a chirpy café. The chapel is used for temporary exhibitions.

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  3. Arc de Triomf

    This curious triumphal gate, with its Islamic-style brickwork, was the ceremonial entrance to the 1888 Universal Exhibition. What triumph it commemorates isn't clear - probably just getting the thing built more or less in time.

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  4. Barcelona Propera

    The Edifici Fòrum is home to a permanent exhibition on Barcelona's urban transformation, Barcelona Propera. The highlight is an amazingly detailed 1:1000 scale model of the city. It took 20,000 man-hours (over five months) to create and is claimed to be the biggest such city model in Europe.

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  5. Bellesguard

    In typical Gaudí fashion, exposed brick, wrought iron and a sense of fairy-tale playfulness combine to give this private mansion, built in 1909, an unreal feel. It's a bit of a hike, so you need to be a fan of obscure things off beaten tracks.

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  7. CaixaForum

    Housed in a former Modernista factory, an outstanding brick caprice by Josep Puig i Cadafalch, this extensive private collection of contemporary art is in constant flux. The Caixa building society rotates its international line-up of works and organises frequent temporary exhibitions, which means that no two visits will be the same. Among the names in the permanent collection are such Spanish icons as Antoni Tàpies and Miquel Barceló.

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  8. Camp Nou stadium

    Passions run high in Barcelona over the fate of its star league football side, Football Club Barcelona. The team plays at the Camp Nou stadium, and tickets for the big matches can be quite hard to come by. Touts always work the stadium, but you need to be careful, as security is tight. The same club boasts a champion basketball team. FC Barcelona shoots baskets at the Palau Blaugrana (B5), just by the main stadium.

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  9. Casa Batlló

    This is Gaudí at his hallucinogenic best, and one of the strangest residential buildings in Europe. The façade's blue, mauve and green tile studded with wave-shaped window frames and balconies, rises to an uneven blue-tiled roof with a solitary tower. Locals know it variously as the casa dels ossos (house of bones) or casa del drac (house of the dragon).

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  10. Casa Calvet

    Gaudí's first apartment block and most conventional building won him the only award of his life - the city council's prize for the best building of 1900. It's sober and straight from the outside, but some hints of whimsy can be seen in the ground-floor restaurant.

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  11. Casa de l'Ardiaca

    This 16th-century house is home to the city's archives and has a supremely serene courtyard, renovated by Domènech i Montaner in 1902. You can get a good glimpse at some stout Roman wall in here.

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  13. Casa de la Pia Almoina

    Barcelona's Roman walls ran across Plaça de la Seu into what subsequently became the Casa de la Pia Almoina. This charity operated from the 11th century, but the present building dates back to the 15th century. Inside is the Museu Diocesà (Diocesan Museum), with a sparse collection of medieval religious art.

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  14. Casa de les Punxes

    Puig i Cadafalch could have been eating too much cheese late at night when he created this neo-Gothic fantasy, which was built between 1903 and 1905. Officially the Casa Terrades, the building's pointed turrets earned it the nickname Casa de les Punxes (House of the Spikes).

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  15. Casa Museu Gaudí

    Worth a gander if you're in Park Güell , this is the house where Gaudí spent many of his later years. The museum includes furniture designed by Gaudí and his mates, along with personal effects and an ascetically narrow bed upon which he probably fantasised about completing La Sagrada Família.

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  16. Casa Vicenç

    The turreted and vaguely Mudéjar-inspired 1888 Casa Vicenç was one of Gaudí's first commissions. This private house (which cannot be visited) is awash with ceramic colour and shape.

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  17. Catedral

    The majestic Catedral with its irregular Romanesque cloister and powerful Gothic interior, lords it over the rest of the Girona.

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  19. Centre d'Interpretació

    Just inside the main entrance of Park Güell on Carrer d'Olot, which is immediately recognisable by the two Hansel-and-Gretel gatehouses, visit the park's Centre d'Interpretació in the Pavelló de Consergeria, the curvaceous, Gaudian former porter's home that hosts a display on Gaudí's building methods and park history.

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  20. Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB)

    Loved by locals, this dynamic, multi-use cultural centre occupies the shell of an 18th-century hospice, with sgraffiti décor in the main courtyard, and hosts a constantly changing programme of exhibitions on urban design, 20th-century arts, architecture and the city itself.

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  21. Circuit de Catalunya

    The motor-racing circuit at Montmeló, 20km northeast of the city, hosts the Spanish Grand Prix in late April or early May. Contact the Circuit de Catalunya for details.

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  22. Cosmocaixa

    Kids (and many grown-ups) can't help twiddling knobs and engaging in experiments in this bright, playful science museum housed in a Modernista building (completed in 1909). The single greatest highlight is the re-creation over 1 sq km of a chunk of flooded Amazon rain forest (Bosc Inundat), complete with anacondas and tropical downpours. Elsewhere, everything from fossils to physics is touched on.

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  23. Cremallera

    For Montserrat, the R5 line trains operated by FGC (www.fgc.es) run from Plaça d'Espanya station to Monistrol de Montserrat. They connect with the cremallera (rack-and-pinion train; www.cremallerademontserrat.com). TransMontserrat tickets include the train, cremallera , two Metro rides, unlimited use of the funiculars in Montserrat and an audiovisual display on monastery life. The TotMontserrat card includes museum entrance and a modest dinner at the self-service restaurant.

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  25. Edifici de Gas Natural

    While only 100m high, this brand-new shimmering glass waterfront tower - designed by Enric Miralles - is extraordinary for its mirrorlike surface and weirdly protruding adjunct buildings, which could be giant glass cliffs bursting from the main tower's flank.

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  26. Església De Betlem

    The early 18th-century Church of Jerusalem was once considered the most splendid of Barcelona's few baroque offerings. Its exterior still makes a powerful impression, but arsonists destroyed much of the inside at the outset of the civil war in 1936. In the run-up to Christmas, check out the pessebres (nativity scenes).

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  27. Església de Sant Pau del Camp

    Barcelona's oldest church, St Paul in the Fields was founded by monks in the 9th century. Although the squat, rural-looking building shows its age, it has some wonderful Visigothic sculptural decoration on its doorway and a fine Romanesque cloister.

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  28. Església De Santa Anna

    Starting life as a Romanesque chapel in the 12th century, this tranquil house of worship is set on a square of its own. The deliciously silent and cool Gothic cloister encloses a leafy garden and fountain.

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  29. Església de Santa Maria del Mar

    Barcelona's most powerful and beguiling Gothic temple stands serenely amid the swirling crowds that daily invade the El Born area, once the heart of local commerce and now devoted to local diversion.

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