Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC)

The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, known as the MNAC, occupies the Palau Nacional, the big domed building at the top of the long avenue of fountains rising from Plaça d’Espanya on Montjuïc. The palace was built for the International Exposition of 1929 by the architects Eugenio Cendoya and Enric Catà, in a monumental Italian Renaissance and Baroque-influenced style. The museum in its present form was established in 1990, bringing together earlier collections of Catalan art, and it opened in the building after a major renovation by Gae Aulenti, which was completed in the 1990s.

The Romanesque collection is the internationally important part. In the early twentieth century, specialists detached wall paintings from remote Pyrenean churches and moved them to Barcelona to protect them from sale and decay. They are displayed here in galleries that reproduce the architecture of the original apses. The most celebrated is the apse from Sant Climent de Taüll, painted about 1123 with Christ in Majesty, a powerful figure in strong blues, reds and ochres that has influenced many modern artists. The sculpture, altarpieces and woodwork in this section give a rare picture of medieval religious life in Catalonia.

The Gothic rooms continue the story with panel paintings and altarpieces. Later galleries hold Renaissance and Baroque works, including a large group of paintings from the collection of Francesc Cambó, a Catalan politician and patron, and the museum also covers Modernisme, with furniture and decorative art, and the early twentieth century. There are also collections of drawings, prints, photography and coins.

The building has a great hall under the dome and a rooftop terrace and viewpoint that looks over Plaça d’Espanya and the city towards the sea. The terraced fountains in front form the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc, which performs light and music shows in the evenings during certain seasons. A restaurant sits in the oval hall.

Montjuïc is a hill, so the approach involves outdoor escalators from the plaza or a bus, and the Palau Nacional is reached by climbing steps. The museum is well worth a morning, and it combines easily with the Joan Miró Foundation or Montjuïc Castle on the same hill. Hours and admission vary, with certain days free, so check the official site.