BARCELONA IN CONTEXT

The first floor of the enormous National Museum of Catalan Art (MNAC) is dedicated to Catalan Modern Art. Reopened in September 2014 after considerable renovation, the modern art display includes representative sculpture and painting, drawings and prints, photography, poster work, cinema, architecture and the decorative arts as far back as 1950. The museum also boasts an encyclopaedic collection of Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque art and houses the Catalan paintings from the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza collection. Long flights of stairs lead to the museum, worth the climb for the dramatic vistas. From May to September, open Tuesday-Saturday: 10.00-20.00, Sundays and public holidays: 10.00-15.00. For full details visit: 

www.museunacional.cat

If the glimpse of the motorbike in the Disseny Museum stimulated your curiosity, there’s more to see and to learn about Catalan’s motorbike industry… and the place to look into it is the Motorbike Museum (pictured above) in the Gothic quarter. Housed in the basement of the former Saint Felip Neri convent, this street-level museum is a wonderland of wheels and gears and bikes of all persuasions, 40 models in all. The permanent exhibition, “Catalan Motorbikes (1905-2010): the History of a Pioneering Industry”, pays tribute to the founders of the local motorbike industry which at one time numbered 150 manufacturers. For details visit: www.museomoto.com; Open Tuesday-Saturday: 10.30-14.30 and 15.30-19.30, Sunday: 10.30-14.30.

Not all of Catalonia’s history is in museums. A moving demonstration of national culture can normally be seen on Saturdays and Sundays in the square outside Barcelona’s Cathedral, the Church of the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia. A group of musicians will appear and unpack their instruments on the steps of the church, spectators will settle around them like a flock of birds and, as if by magic, people form circles in the square, link hands and wait for the Sardana to begin. The dance has been a badge of Catalan national defiance and pride since the 19th Century. Usually on Saturday at 18.30 and Sunday at noon in front of the cathedral. Read about the deceptively simple ‘People’s Dance’ at: www.barcelona-metropolitan.com