Other examples of Barcelona's varied architecture,
from ancient to postmodern

Remnants of the Roman walls around the center of Barcelona survive, most incorporated into later buildings.
In the nineteenth century, columns from a Roman temple were discovered within the walls of a medieval building.

Several monuments survive from medieval Barcelona, including churches and the palace where the Counts of Barcelona lived.

In one of these medieval churches, we found a sculpture of Saint Gerald (Sant Grau), as he appears in Catalan art.

One evening the medieval Hall of the Hundred (Saló de Cent) was open to the public.
It is where the medieval town council met, comprised of a hundred members.

A section of the medieval walls from the fourteenth-century expansion of Barcelona are still standing.

The famous medieval church of Santa María de Mar (Saint Mary of the Sea).

Other pages of this website show our photos of the famous Moderniste architecture of Barcelona.

Noucentisme, as it was called, developed as a reaction to Modernisme in architecture.
Architects working in this early twentieth-century style wanted to return to a more classical look.
When the straight Via Laietana was cut through the center of old Barcelona between 1907 and 1926,
it provided an opportunity for Noucentiste architects to line the new boulevard with buildings in this style.

Art Deco began in the 1920s, with cleaner lines and less detail.

A key building in the new styles of modern architecture was the pavillion built for the Germany exhibit at the
1929 International Exhibition in Barcelona. The building was recently rebuilt. It was designed by the architect
Mies van der Rohe in a minimalist style, but one that used extravagant stone like green marble and gold onyx.

Among other avant-garde artists associated with Barcelona was Pablo Picasso, who designed murals
for the College of Architects of Catalonia (Col.legi d'arquitectes de Catalunya), completed in 1962,
near towers from the Roman walls and within sight of the central tower of Barcelona's cathedral.

Below is a terrific apartment lobby from the 1970s.

Barcelona is full of innovative new buildings and reinventions of older buildings.

There is a cluster of new and interesting buildings near the Plaça de les Glòries (Square of the Glories).

Among the highlights at the square is the Teatre nacional de Catalunya (National Theater of Catalonia),
intended to resemble an ancient temple. It was designed by Ricardo Bofill and completed in 1996.

Also of interest is the structure that houses the flea market in Barcelona,
called Els Encants (The Enchantments), designed by Fermín Vázquez and completed in 2013.

Nearby is the Torre Agbar (Agbar Tower), designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel, and opened in 2005.
Thousands of window blinds open and close automatically over the course of the day, and since they are all
painted in different colors and have different colored lights, the building takes on various hues during the day
and glows at night. The shape was inspired by the spires of Gaudí's Sagrada Familia and the peaks of Montserrat.

In front of the Torre Agbar is the Disseny HUB, Barcelona's new decorative arts museum.

Another cluster of modern buildings is found at Diagonal Mar, east of the city center.

Below is the Museum of Natural Sciences of Barcelona (Museu de Ciències naturals de Barcelona) designed by Hurzog and de Meuron.

Our apartment was also in a funky modern building, encased in a "shell" of metal ribs.

Our neighborhood of Gràcia had lots of cool buildings to enjoy.

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