El Raval - Discover Barcelona: Experience the Best of Barcelona - page 193

Historic Building

ANTIC HOSPITAL DE LA SANTA CREU

( 93 270 23 00; www.bnc.cat ; Carrer de l'Hospital 56; 9am-8pm Mon-Fri, to 2pm Sat; Liceu)
Behind the Mercat de la Boqueria ( Click here ) stands what was, in the 15th century, the
city's main hospital. The restored Antic Hospital de la Santa Creu (Former Holy Cross
Hospital) today houses the Biblioteca de Catalunya Offline map Google map (Library
of Catalonia; admission free; 9am-8pm Mon-Fri, 9am-2pm Sat) , as well as the Institut
d'Estudis Catalans (Institute for Catalan Studies) . The former hospital's Gothic chapel, La
Capella Offline map Google map ( 93 442 71 71; www.bcn.cat/lacapel la; admission free;
noon-2pm & 4-8pm Tue-Sat, 11am-2pm Sun & holidays) , is worth poking your nose into for the
frequent temporary exhibitions.
Entering from Carrer de l'Hospital, you find yourself in a delightfully bedraggled court-
yard garden that is home to bums, earnest students on a break and a cheerful bar-cafe. Off
the garden lies the entrance to the prestigious Massana conservatorium and, up a sweep of
stairs, the library. The library is the single most complete collection of documents (estim-
ated at around three million) tracing the region's long history. You can freely visit the
most impressive part, the grand reading rooms beneath broad Gothic stone arches, where
you can also see temporary displays of anything from old records to medieval monastic
hymnals.

CENTRE DE CULTURA CONTEMPORÀNIA DE BARCELONA
Offline map Google map

Cultural Building

(CCCB; 93 306 41 00; www.cccb.org ; Carrer de Montalegre 5; 2 exhibitions adult/child under 16yr/seni-
or & student €6/free/4.50, 1 exhibition €5/free/3, free on Wednesdays, 8-10pm Thu, 3-8pm Sun;
11am-8pm Tue, Wed & Fri-Sun, 11am-10pm Thu; Universitat) A complex of auditoriums, exhib-
ition spaces and conference halls opened here in 1994 in an old 18th-century hospice, the
Casa de la Caritat. The spectacular courtyard has a vast glass wall on one side. With 4500
sq metres of exhibition space, the centre hosts a constantly changing program of exhibi-
tions, film cycles and other events.