Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
93 484 19 70;
www.cbsa.cat
; Carrer de la Mare de Déu de Port 56-58;
8am-6pm; 9, 21)
On the hill to the south of the Anella Olímpica stretches this huge cemetery, the Cementiri
del Sud-Oest (or 'Cementiri Nou'), which extends down the southern side of the hill. Opened
in 1883, it's an odd combination of elaborate architect-designed tombs for rich families and
small niches for the rest. It includes the graves of numerous Catalan artists and politicians,
and, at the entrance, the Col·lecció de Carrosses Fúnebres.
Among the big names are Joan Miró, Carmen Amaya (the flamenco dance star from La
Barceloneta), Jacint Verdaguer (the 19th-century priest and poet to whom the rebirth of
Catalan literature is attributed), Francesc Macià and Lluís Companys (nationalist presidents
of Catalonia; Companys was executed by Franco's henchmen in the Castell de Montjuïc in
1940), Ildefons Cerdà (who designed L'Eixample) and Joan Gamper (the founder of the FC
Barcelona football team, aka Hans Gamper). Many victims of Franco's postwar revenge
were buried in unmarked graves here - the last of them in 1974. Both buses 9 and 21 stop
around 10 minutes' walk away - the cemetery is easy to spot.
MUSEUM
COL·LECCIÓ DE CARROSSES FÚNEBRES
10am-2pm Wed-Sun; 9, 21)
If late-18th-century to mid-20th-century hearses (complete with period-dressed dummies)
are your thing, then this collection, set at the entrance to the Cementiri del Sud-Oest, is
probably the city's weirdest sight, a place to contemplate the pomp and circumstance of
people's last earthly ride. The funeral company claims it is the biggest museum of its kind in
the world.
The collection incorporates funeral carriages spanning 90 years, four of them with horses
and accompanying walkers in powdered wigs and tricorn hats, as well as a metallic Buick
hearse and a couple of earlier motorised hearses.
HISTORIC SITE
MUHBA REFUGI 307
mission incl tour adult/child under 7yr €3.40/free;
tours 10.30am, 11.30am & 2.30pm Sun;
Paral·lel)
Part of the Museu d'Història de Barcelona (MUHBA), this is a shelter that dates back to the
days of the Spanish Civil War. Barcelona was the city most heavily bombed from the air
