Must see attractions in Barcelona

  • Top Choice
    CosmoCaixa

    One of the city’s most popular family-friendly attractions, this science museum is a favourite with kids (and kids at heart). The single greatest…

  • Top Choice
    Mercat de Santa Caterina

    Come shopping for your tomatoes or pop in for lunch at this extraordinary-looking produce market, designed by forward-thinking architects Enric Miralles…

  • Top Choice
    El Poblenou Platges

    A series of beautiful, broad, sandy golden beaches dotted with xiringuitos (seasonal beach bars) stretches northeast from the Port Olímpic marina. They're…

  • Top Choice
    Museu d’Història de Catalunya

    Within the revitalised 1880s Palau de Mar, this excellent museum travels from the Stone Age through to the arrival of Modernisme in Catalonia and the…

  • Gran Teatre del Liceu

    If you can’t catch a night at the opera, you can still take in the awe-inspiring architectural riches of one of Europe’s greatest opera houses. Opened in…

  • Casa Amatller

    One of Puig i Cadafalch’s most striking flights of Modernista fantasy, Casa Amatller combines Gothic window frames and Romanesque flourishes with a…

  • Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau

    Domènech i Montaner outdid himself as architect and philanthropist with the Modernista Hospital de la Santa Creu i de Sant Pau, renamed the 'Recinte…

  • Casa de les Punxes

    Puig i Cadafalch’s 1905 Casa Terrades is known as the Casa de les Punxes (House of Spikes) because of its pointed tile-adorned turrets. Resembling a…

  • Parc de la Ciutadella

    Come for a stroll, a picnic, a lake boat ride, a tour of Catalonia’s parliament or to marvel at the swirling waterfall-fountain in which Gaudí had a hand…

  • Poble Espanyol

    Welcome to Spain! All of it! This ‘Spanish Village’ is an intriguing scrapbook of Spanish architecture built for the local-crafts section of the 1929…

  • Colònia Güell

    Apart from La Sagrada Família, Gaudí’s last big project was the creation of a utopian textile workers’ complex for his magnate patron Eusebi Güell outside…

  • Castell de Montjuïc

    Enjoying commanding views over the Mediterranean, this forbidding fortress dominates the southeastern heights of Montjuïc. It dates, in its present form,…

  • Tibidabo

    Framing the north end of the city, the pine-forested mountain of Tibidabo, which tops out at 512m, is the highest peak in Serra de Collserola. Much of its…

  • MUHBA Refugi 307

    Barcelona was the city most heavily bombed by Franco's air forces during the Spanish Civil War, and as a result developed more than 1300 air-raid shelters…

  • El Fòrum

    Once an urban wasteland, this area has seen dramatic changes since the turn of the millennium, including sparkling buildings, open plazas and waterfront…

  • Palau de la Generalitat

    The early-15th-century Palau de la Generalitat opens through a monumental late-Renaissance facade with neoclassical leanings, designed by Pere Blai, but…

  • Museu del Disseny de Barcelona

    Nicknamed la grapadora (the stapler), Barcelona's fascinating design museum lies inside a monolithic contemporary building with geometric facades and a…

  • Carrer de Montcada

    Today running between the Romanesque Capella d'en Marcús and Passeig del Born, this medieval high street (an early example of town planning) was driven…

  • Basílica de Santa Maria del Pi

    Begun in 1320, on the site of a 10th-century Romanesque church, this striking 14th-century basilica is a classic of Catalan Gothic, with an imposing…