Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Museu Europeu d'Art Modern
C/de la Barra de Ferro 5 • Daily 10am-7pm • €7, €2 guided tour (Sat & Sun noon), under-12s free • 933 195
693,
meam.es
• Jaume I
There is not one photograph on display at the
Museu Europeu d'Art Modern
, a fact you
may find hard to believe considering how photorealistic many of the paintings are. Located
in a renovated eighteenth-century palace -and just metres from the Museu Picasso -the mu-
seumfocusesprimarilyonmodernandcontemporaryfigurativeart.Itsthreefloorsbrimwith
haunting, humorous and sometimes disturbing works by the likes of Eduardo Naranjo, Paul
Beel and Carlos Saura Riaza. It's also home to modern, Art Deco and Catalan sculptures.
On Fridays and Saturdays, the museum hosts blues, swing and classical concerts, which take
place in its sculpture-peppered courtyard or under the ten-metre-high ceiling of the palace's
grand, Neoclassical main room.
Museu del Mamut
C/de Montcada 1 • Daily 10am-9pm • €7.50, under-5s free • 932 688 520,
museodelmamut.com
•
Jaume I
Though by no means mammoth in size, the
Museu del Mamut
(Mammoth Museum) will
appeal to
Ice Age
film fans and anyone with an interest in prehistoric animals. Apart from a
shaggy, life-sized mammoth reaching to within an inch of the ceiling, there's a sabre-toothed
tiger and a musk buffalo along with plenty of authentic skeletons and several reproductions
of cave paintings. The experience is refreshingly hands-on without the “no touching” signs
seen at most of the city's museums. Displays are in Spanish and Catalan with English-lan-
guage notes available at the ticket counter.
Església de Santa María del Mar and around
Pl. de Santa María • Mon-Sat 9am-1.30pm & 4.30-7.30pm • Church free during general admission times, oth-
erwise €3 (church) or €5 (church, terrace & towers) from 1.30-4.30pm •
stamariadelmar.org
• Jaume I
La Ribera's flagship church of
Santa María del Mar
is the city's most exquisite example
of pure Catalan-Gothic architecture - much dearer to the heart of the average local than the
overpowering cathedral, La Seu. Conceived as thanks for the Catalan conquest of Sardinia in
1324, work on the church began in 1329 and was finished in just over half a century, which
explains its consistency of style. It's not obvious today, but Santa María
del Mar
(ie, of the
sea)wasalsobuiltonwhatwastheseashore inthefourteenth century(hencethetitle ofIlde-
fonso Falcone's medieval blockbuster novel
CathedraloftheSea
, which relates its construc-
tion). The church - dedicated to Catalan maritime glories - stood foursquare at the heart of
Barcelona's trading district (nearby c/de l'Argenteria, for example, is named after the silver-
smiths who once worked there), and indeed came to embody the commercial supremacy of
the Crown of Aragón, of which the city was capital. Its wide nave, narrow aisles, massive
