Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(
www.poble-espanyol.com
;
Avinguda de Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia; adult/child €9.50/5.60; 9am-8pm
Mon, to 2am Tue-Thu, to 4am Fri, to 5am Sat, to midnight Sun; 50, 61 or 193, Espanya)
Wel-
come to Spain! All of it! This 'Spanish Village' is both a cheesy souvenir hunters' haunt
and an intriguing scrapbook of Spanish architecture built for the Spanish crafts section of
the 1929 World Exhibition. You can meander from Andalucía to the Balearic Islands in
the space of a couple of hours, visiting surprisingly good copies of Spain's characteristic
buildings.
You enter from beneath a towered medieval gate from Ávila. Inside, to the right, is an
information office with free maps. Straight ahead from the gate is the Plaza Mayor (Town
Square), surrounded with mainly Castilian and Aragonese buildings. It is sometimes the
scene of summer concerts. Elsewhere you'll find an Andalucian
barri
, a Basque street,
Galician and Catalan quarters and even a Dominican monastery (at the eastern end). The
buildings house dozens of restaurants, cafes, bars, craft shops and workshops (such as
glassmakers), and some souvenir stores.
At night the restaurants, bars and especially the discos become a lively corner of Bar-
celona's nightlife.
PAVELLÓ MIES VAN DER ROHE
Architecture
( 93 423 40 16;
www.miesbcn.com
; Avinguda de Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia; adult/child under 18yr/stu-
dent €4.75/free/2.60; 10am-8pm; Espanya)
The Pavelló Mies van der Rohe is not only a
work of breathtaking beauty and simplicity, it is a highly influential building emblematic
of the modern movement. The structure has been the subject of many studies and inter-
pretations, and it has inspired several generations of architects. Designed in 1929 by Lud-
wig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) as the Pavelló Alemany (German Pavilion) for the
World Exhibition, it was removed after the show and reconstructed only in 1980, after the
building had been consistently referred to as one of the key works of modern architecture.
MUSEU D'ARQUEOLOGIA DE CATALUNYA (MAC)
Museum
(Archaeology Museum;
www.mac.cat
; Passeig de Santa Madrona 39-41; adult/student €3/2.10;
9.30am-7pm Tue-Sat, 10am-2.30pm Sun; 55 or 193)
This archaeology museum, housed in what
was the Graphic Arts palace during the 1929 World Exposition, covers Catalonia and oth-
er Spanish cultures. Items range from copies of pre-Neanderthal skulls to lovely
Carthaginian necklaces and jewel-studded Visigothic crosses.
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