Visible factory walls
Rough old stone standing behind the work hung in front of it.
Museus VilaCasas — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Fpvc — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Fred Romero — CC BY 2.0 · Fred Romero — CC BY 2.0
A museum of contemporary Catalan painting in an eighteenth-century textile factory, in the middle of the 22@ technology district in Barcelona's Poblenou. The building is half the story: its old stone walls were kept as they were, and a modern concrete structure carrying three floors was inserted inside them. The result is galleries within a factory shell — the old walls visible from inside in their roughness, with the work hung in front of them. The collection concentrates on Catalan painting from the 1950s to today, a field few know outside Spain. More than three hundred works by over two hundred artists. The surrounding district is part of the subject: Poblenou was the heart of Barcelona's industry — called the Manchester of Catalonia — and was then replanned as a technology quarter, leaving the old factories standing among new buildings. The museum is an example of that conversion. It lies well off Barcelona's usual visitor route, which makes it entirely quiet compared with the museums in the centre. It has a weekly closing day — check before going.
Rough old stone standing behind the work hung in front of it.
Over three hundred works in a field few know outside Spain.
Poblenou was Barcelona's industrial heart before it became a tech quarter.
Poblenou, the 22@ district
Mirador Torre GlòriesTorre Glòries is the bullet-shaped tower that has become one of modern Barcelona6 min walk
Design Museum of BarcelonaThe Design Museum sits on Plaça de les Glòries in a heavy grey block, one end of8 min walk
Museu de la Música de BarcelonaA museum of musical instruments spanning several centuries, occupying a floor in12 min walk
La MonumentalA vast early twentieth-century building on the Gran Via, formerly the last worki15 min walk
Port OlímpicA marina built for the 1992 Olympic Games, standing between the Barceloneta and 21 min walkFor anyone interested in contemporary art or reused industrial architecture, yes, and the metro is only fifteen minutes. On a first visit to Barcelona, no — the Sagrada Família, Park Güell, the old city and the Picasso museum will absorb your days. Make it an option for a second visit, or a day when you want away from the crowds.
A scheme through which Barcelona replanned the industrial Poblenou into a quarter of technology companies and universities, begun in 2000. Selected industrial buildings were kept and absorbed among the new towers. The district is a studied example of industrial land reuse, and is entirely unlike the Gothic Barcelona visitors know.
Sign in to write your review of this place.
No reviews yet — be the first.