History Museum of Catalonia

The History Museum of Catalonia offers an engaging journey through Catalonia’s past, featuring interactive exhibits and a diverse collection of artifacts.

Planning your visit

The History Museum of Catalonia occupies the Palau de Mar, a converted nineteenth-century port warehouse on the Barceloneta waterfront, and its purpose is explicitly to present Catalonia as a nation with its own continuous history — a proposition that is politically live in Spain and shapes the whole display.

The permanent exhibition runs chronologically from prehistory through Roman and medieval Catalonia, the maritime empire of the Crown of Aragon, the loss of Catalan institutions after 1714, industrialisation, the Civil War, the Franco period's suppression of the Catalan language, and the restoration of autonomy.

It is unusually hands-on for a history museum: visitors can lift a knight's helmet, work a medieval loom, sit in a 1950s classroom, or shelter in a reconstructed air-raid shelter. That makes it work well with children and gives the chronology a physical dimension.

The rooftop terrace has one of the better free views over the marina and city, and the restaurants on the ground floor are locally popular. Allow two hours. The main booking is an admission ticket. Current availability is listed below.