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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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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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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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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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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.
Read more about Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB)
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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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Fundació Antoni Tàpies
This Domènech i Montaner building - considered by many to be the prototype for Modernisme, and the first in the city to be built on an iron frame - houses the experimental work of Catalonia's greatest living artist, Antoni Tàpies, as well as exhibitions by other contemporary artists. The building is crowned with coiled wire, a curious Tàpies sculpture titled Núvol i Cadira (Cloud and Chair).
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Fundació Joan Miró
A wonderfully captivating gallery showcasing the delights of Miró. Miró's friend Josep Lluís Sert designed the gallery and its amazing use of white and light makes it an unforgettable experience. The gallery was Miró's gift to his beloved city. It also houses exhibitions by contemporary artists.
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Fundación Francisco Godia
An intriguing mix of medieval art and ceramics and modern paintings make up this eclectic private collection. Jaume Huguet is represented by Santa Maria Magdalena, a bright, Gothic representation of Mary Magdalene dressed in red ermine. Medieval works also include wooden sculptures of the Virgin Mary and Christ taken down from the Cross.
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Galería Olímpica
This museum is chock-full of photographs and memorabilia associated with the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Favourite items are the scrumptious-looking models of the standard daily diet (baked beans, anyone?) of cyclists and gymnasts.
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La Pedrera
This hallucinatory, undulating beast is yet another madcap Gaudí masterpiece, built between 1905 and 1910 as a combined apartment and office block. Formerly called the Casa Milà, it's better known as La Pedrera (the quarry) because of its uneven grey stone facade that creates a wave effect, which is further emphasized by elaborate wrought-iron balconies.
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Museu Barbier-Mueller d'Art Precolombí
In this branch of the prestigious Barbier-Mueller museum in Geneva you'll find a sparkling assortment of art from the pre-Columbian civilisations of Central and South America. Gold glitters in the form of at times highly intricate ornamental objects, expressive masks and women's jewellery. These pieces are complemented by plenty of statuary, ceramics, textiles and ritual and household objects from all over South America.
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Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya
This archaeology museum mainly features artefacts discovered in Catalonia and Mediterranean Spain, ranging from copies of pre-Neanderthal skulls to jewel-studded Visigothic crosses. It also houses a statue of a splendidly endowed, and routinely aroused, Priapus (the god of male procreative power) that we're not allowed to inspect closely.
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Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona
The ever-expanding contemporary art collection of the Macba starts in the Gothic chapel of the Convent dels Àngels and continues in the main gleaming white building across the square. It shines as a stage for the best of Catalan, Spanish and international contemporary art. What's on show is in constant, restless flux, although in the chapel you are more likely to see established names such as Alexander Calder and Antoni Tàpies.
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Museu d'Història de Catalunya
From the caves of the Pyrenees to air-raid shelters of the civil war, see how Catalans and other folk (including Romans and Arabs) have rolled with history's ups and downs over 2000 years in this hectic but entertaining interactive display. Pick up a guide in English at reception and don't miss the view from the top-floor restaurant.
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Museu d'Història de la Ciutat
Study Girona's history at the Museu d'Història de la Ciutat and wander the narrow streets of the medieval Jewish district around Carrer de la Força.
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Museu de Carrosses Fúnebres
A somewhat morbid air pervades this collection of horse-drawn hearses (and a few motorised ones) used in the city from the 18th century until the 1950s. Some are decked out with life-size model horses and mannequins of funeral company folk in full VIP gear of yesteryear.
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Museu de Cera
With a collection of 300 wax figures of familiar faces from around the world, this is just as creepy as any other wax museum. More horrible than any display of twisted medieval torture are the figures of Prince Charles with Camilla.
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Museu de Ceràmica
Welcome to perhaps the most fragile exhibits in Barcelona: an exceptional collection of Spanish ceramics from medieval times to the present day. It includes pieces by Miró and Picasso, as well as a charming section of tiles depicting Catalan life.
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Museu de l'Eròtica
Falling somewhere between titillation, tawdriness and art, this private collection is devoted to sex through the ages. The décor is pseudo-seedy, and the diverse exhibits range from exquisite Kamasutra illustrations and Mapplethorpe photos to early porn movies, S&M apparatus and a 2m wooden penis.
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Museu de la Xocolata
Explore the sticky story of chocolate through audiovisual displays (in English on request), touch-screen presentations, historical exhibits and the most extraordinary chocolate models of anything from grand monuments such as La Sagrada Família to cartoon characters such as Winnie the Pooh. Sign up for cooking demonstrations and tastings.
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Museu de les Arts Decoratives
Occupying the same former palace as the Museu de Ceràmica, this series of galleries overlooks a stunningly sumptuous oval throne room and features a collection of furniture and decorative objects from the early Middle Ages to the kitsch 1970s.
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Museu de Montserrat
The Museu de Montserrat has a varied art collection ranging from an Egyptian mummy to works by Degas and Caravaggio. Use the funiculars and walking paths to explore this incredible piece of nature.For train timetables and prices from Barcelona to Girona and Sitges, check www.renfe.es. For Montserrat, the R5 line trains operated by FGC (www.fgc.es) run from Plaça d'Espanya station to Monistrol de Montserrat.
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Museu de Zoologia
This rather fusty old institution is the place for stuffed animals, model elephants and skeletons of huge things that lived in the past. What makes it interesting is the building itself - a whimsical 'castle' by Domènech i Montaner.
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Museu del Calçat
Hotfoot it to this unexpected treat, the little museum of shoes: dainty ones, famous ones, weird ones, Roman ones, silk ones, seamless ones, baby ones and one gigantic one made for the Monument a Colom .
