The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya is a museum of Catalan visual art located in the Palau Nacional, built for the 1929 World's Fair.
Situated on the Montjuïc hill at the end of Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina, it was rehabilitated for the 1992 Summer Olympics. The museum was located in this building in 1990, when the Catalonian Museum Law reunited the collections of the former Museu d'Art de Catalunya and the Museu d'Art Modern, and declared it the national museum. The new museum thus combined Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and the 19th and 20th century art collections.
The museum opened in 1995, with the Romanesque art section. The Gothic art section was opened on 1997, while the Renaissance, Baroque, 19th century and 20th century collections opened on 2000. The official opening, with the building completely rehabilitated and all the collections in place, was in 2004.
The original Museu d'Art de Catalunya was opened on 1934 on the same location as today, but was closed during the Spanish Civil War. It was reopened from 1940 to 1942. On 1945, the Modern Art Museum opened in the Arsenal of the Ciutadella park.
Since 2004, the MNAC accommodates works of the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection. The works were exposed in the Monastery of Pedralbes but it was decided to move them to facilitate the visits of the public. Paintings of the periods included between the Gothic period and the rococo are shown.
Sections
- Romanesque art: This collection contains mainly Catalan art from the 11th-13th centuries (with some works pre-dating this period). The most significant part of this collection are the internationally important wall-paintings of Romanesque churches and chapels around Catalonia that have been transferred to the museum, including the fragmentary remains of the cycle by English artists from Sigena, and sculptures like the Batllo Crucifix.
- Gothic art: Catalan art from the 13th-15th centuries, along with some Italian art.
- Renaissance and Baroque art: Spanish, Italian and Flemish art from the 16th-18th centuries. The collection was started with the local art and augmented mostly through donations, specially that of the Francesc Cambó collection.
- Modern art: Catalan art from the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century, including photography and the decorative arts. Notable are the works of Ramon Casas, Santiago Rusiñol, Isidre Nonell, Pau Gargallo and the modernist decorative arts of Antoni Gaudí. Picasso's Woman in Hat and Fur Collar can be found in this section, too.
- Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection: A collection of works deposited by the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. It includes pieces from the Renaissance and Baroque. It also includes a collection of Catalan art belonging to the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, from the mid-19th century to the second half of the 20th century.
- Department of Drawings and Prints: collection of drawings, prints and posters from the last 17th century to the historical avant-gardes.
- Photography collection: Photographs from the 19th century to mid-1990s.
- Numismatics collection: Coins, medals and paper money from VI BC to the present day. Outstanding is the collection of pieces from Catalonia and the neighbouring territories.
The Building
The National Palau of Montjuïc was constructed among 1926 and 1929, with the goal to be the main building of the International Exhibition of Barcelona of 1929, like this like to show an Exhibition of Spanish Art (The Arte in España), with more than 5.000 works coming from all the State.
The building is a work of Eugenio Cendoya and Enric Catà, under the supervision of Pere Domènech i Roura, rejecting an initial project of Puig i Cadafalch and Guillem Busquets. It shows a symmetrical main façade, with a central body who stands out and two lateral ones; the central body is crowned all the set of the façade by a dome of roman, dominant style and accompanies itself to the sides of two smaller domes. The four angles of the big Hall are compound for some towers of square plant that integrate into the composition of the façade exterior.
The work has an area of 32.000 m² and is from classicist style, inspired in the Spanish Renaissance. It has a rectangular floor with two lateral bodies and one of posterior square, with a big dome on the part central. The waterfalls and fountains of the outside staircase of the Palau would be a work of Carles Buïgas. In the same period nine big projectors that today still issue some intense bundles of light that write the name of the city in the sky were placed.
In its show the opening ceremony of the exhibition The Arte was made in España, presided by the king Alphonse XIII and the queen Victòria Eugènia.
In the decoration of the Palau -of art nouveau style (contrarily to the classicism of l'estructura)-, several artists, like the sculptors Enric Casanovas, Josep Dunyach, Frederic Marès and Josep Llimona, and the painters Francesc d'Assís Galí, intervened Josep de Togores, Manuel Humbert, Josep Obiols, Joan Colom and Francesc Labarta. From 1934 it is the headquarters|venue of the MNAC.
Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya Map
Address
Palau Nacional
Parc de Montjuïc
08038 Barcelona
Public Transport
- Underground L1 and L3 (Pl. Espanya)
- Buses Bus Parc de Montjuïc (Av. de Maria Cristina-MNAC)
- 50 (Av. De l'Estadi/Piscines Picornell)
- 13 (Av. Marquès de Comillas/Poble Espanyol)
- 55 (Museu MNAC/Museu Etnològic)
- Up to Pl. d'Espanya 9, 27, 30, 37, 56,57, 65, 79, 109, 157, 165
- Tourist Bus MNAC
- Montjuïc tourist train (consult running dates)
- FGC L8, S33, S4, S8, R5, R6 (Espanya Station)
Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya Opening Hours
October - April:
Tuesday to Saturday, from 10am to 6pm. Sunday and public holidays, from 10am to 3pm.
May - September:
Tuesday to Saturday, from 10am to 8pm. Sunday and public holidays, from 10am to 3pm.
Closed: January 1st, May 1st and December 25th.
Saturday from 3pm and first Sunday of every month, free entrance.
Admission tickets
- General ticket: € 12,00 (valid for two days: permanent collection)
- Temporary exhibitions : contact the Museum
Reduced charges
- Unemployed people 30% reduction
- Families (2 adults + 1 child) and holders of extended family document 30% reduction
- Adult groups 30% reduction
- School or student groups, accompanied by teachers or lecturers without booking 30% reduction
- Tourist Bus 20% reduction
Free visit
- Under 16 years old
- Over 65 years of age
- Teachers with credentials and School or student groups, accompanied by teachers or lecturers previous booking
- People accompanying groups
- Students with credentials from the corresponding department, carrying out research work
- The first Sunday of each month, September 11th and 24th. May 18th, International Day of the Museums.
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