Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC)
Photo: Hitesh Choudhary on Unsplash
- Category
- Museum
- Hours
- 10:00-18:00 (until 20:00 in summer), closed Mondays
- Price
- €12; free on Saturdays from 15:00 and the first Sunday of every month
- Neighborhood
- Sants-Montjuïc
- How to get there
- Metro L1 or L3, Espanya stop, then up the escalators to the Palau Nacional
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The museum occupies the Palau Nacional, the monumental building built for the 1929 International Exposition that crowns Montjuïc right above the Font Màgica. The building and the views from its staircase alone justify the climb, but inside it holds one of the most important art collections in Spain.
Its crown jewel is the Romanesque art collection: fresco-painted apses rescued from Pyrenean churches between 1920 and 1930, reconstructed at full scale inside the museum — something you can't see anywhere else in the world with this level of concentration. The route continues with Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque art, and a floor dedicated to modern Catalan art of the 19th and 20th centuries, with works by Ramon Casas and Santiago Rusiñol.
If you're short on time, prioritise the Romanesque section and go up to the building's dome: from there, the view over Barcelona rivals any paid viewpoint in the city.
Frequently asked questions
When is the MNAC free?
On Saturdays from 15:00 and the first Sunday of every month.
How much does a ticket to the MNAC cost?
€12 for general admission.