Museums and Galleries in Barcelona, Spain (II)

Museums and Galleries in Barcelona, Spain: Aquarium Barcelona – Something fishy going on here

Barcelona’s aquarium may no longer claim to be the largest in Europe, but it's still a fun day out watching its 8000 sea creatures. The show-stealer is the vast central tank, encircled by a 225ft viewing tunnel equipped with a slow human conveyor belt and serenaded by gentle New Age music; the patterns of silvery fish and sharks swimming all around and over your head are remarkably soothing. Kids can enjoy the interactive exhibits.

Love sharks? Qualified divers over age 18 can take a class on sharks on Wednesdays and weekends, then dive in their tank. The €300 fee includes a guided tour of the aquarium for you and two friends, all equipment and insurance. 

For €150, kids aged 8-17 can get a day's initiation in scuba diving. Book tickets for the aquarium or the shark dive online.

Museums and Galleries in Barcelona, Spain: Aquarium Barcelona – How to get there?

Moll d’Espanya del Port Vell

Metro: Drassanes

Museums and Galleries in Barcelona, Spain: Casa Asia – Where East meets West

Since 2003 Puig i Cadafalch's beautiful Modernista Palau Baró de Quadras (1904-06) has found a new life as the Casa Asia, dedicated to promoting cultural interchanges between Spain and the Asia-Pacific region through courses, films, lectures, a media library and cultural and artistic exhibitions. The well-preserved interiors are reason enough for popping in, but the exhibitions are often first rate as well.

Museums and Galleries in Barcelona, Spain: Casa Asia – How to get there?

Avinguda Diagonal 373

Metro: Diagonal

Around the Cathedral – Roman ruins, a Picasson, and a shoe museum

Museums and Galleries in Barcelona, Spain: Casa de l’Ardiaca

Just to the side of the Cathedral facade in C/Santa Lucia, the 12th- to 14th-century Casa de l’Ardiaca (of the Archdeacon) is home to a municipal archive. In 1902, when the palace was owned by the lawyers’ college, Domènech i Montaner was called upon to create the charming tiled courtyard draped in wisteria, with its lofty palm and pretty Gothic fountain. 

Domènech also gave the building Barcelona's most famous and beautiful mail slot. The architect refused to damage the ancient door, but built a Modernista slot on the side with swallows and a tortoise that expressed his opinion of lawyers – swallows, he explained, with wings to soar into the realms of truth, the tortoise plodding along at the pace of court procedures.

Opposite is the Romanesque Capella de Santa Llúcia (1268), founded by Bishop Arnau de Gurb, whose tomb is within. Long, straight C/ del Bisbe Irurita separates the Casa de l’Ardiaca from the medieval Palau Episcopal, the bishops’ palace, built on the Roman wall. It’s off limits, but you can look into the elegant Romanesque courtyard with its pretty arcade, another work of Bishop Gurb.

Museums and Galleries in Barcelona, Spain: Sant Sever and the Shoe Museum

Just across from this palace is the Baroque church of Sant Sever. Like the cathedral, this church was protected from Anarchists by armed guards during the Civil War, and it is one of the few to preserve its frothy Baroque interior, with an altar in a trompe l’œil setting by Jeroni Escarabatxeres. Just behind it, in the charming Plaça Sant Felip Neri is Barcelona's shoe museum, the Museu de Calçat.

Museums and Galleries in Barcelona, Spain: Plaça Nova

Just to the north of the Cathedral, a Thursday flea market takes place in this little square, which also hosts the Christmas market, where discriminating shoppers can find the finest array of caganers. Plaça Nova’s Collegi d’Arquitectes (1962) is a poor ad for the architectural trade, but its otherwise dreary façade is decorated by a sketchy frieze of popular celebrations (including the giants who feature in so many local festivals) by Picasso – his only piece of public art in Barcelona. Inside, there’s a bookshop, a good restaurant and temporary exhibition galleries. 

Opposite are two Roman towers, renovated in the 12th century, that guarded Barcelona’s northeastern gate. In front of this, an arch of the Roman aqueduct was reconstructed in 1958. 

Don't miss the other Roman treasure hidden away on the other side of the Cathedral: the Temple of Augustus.