Barcelona's Top Five Small Museums

Archaeology buffs should flock to the main location of this museum, which has one of the largest underground excavations of Roman ruins in the world.  After displays showing the history of Roman Barcelona, the elevator takes you downstairs to the archaeological subsoil.  Following the audio guide, you get not only the physical descriptions of the ruins themselves, but also a guide to how people lived in the ancient Roman city of Barcino, and onward, with excavations of buildings up to the 14^th century.

Above ground is the Palau Reial, the former residence of the kings of Catalonia.  It has been turned into a museum, with artifacts from the excavations only being part of the story.  The museum’s exhibits trace Barcelona from Neolithic to modern times.

The museum also includes the gorgeous 15^th century Chapel of Saint Agatha.  The highlight is the gothic altarpiece by Jaume Huguet.  Even otherwise empty, the rounded lines of the roof and the colorful stained glass windows show how majestic the chapel once was. 

Catalan artist Frederic Mares was a sculptor by trade, but his true passion was collecting.  “I make sculptures to buy sculpture,” he once said, but sculpture wasn’t the only thing he collected.

The extensive sculpture part of his collection spans two floors, with pieces from ancient times to the Renaissance, including an impressive group of religious icons and statuary.  The remaining two floors house all of the other things he collected.  The Ladies’ Quarter includes clothing, calling cards, decorative fans, needlework, jewelry and many other things women would use in the 19^th century.  Other collections include lighters, toy soldiers, photographs, coins, pipes, scissors, keys, and many other things. 

His collection, viewed as a whole, can actually be overwhelming, but taken step by step it is a unique insight into who Frederic Mares was.

This one of Barcelona’s smallest museums is also it’s tastiest.  On the edge of the Gothic Quarter is the Museu de la Xocolata, or museum of chocolate.  Not only is the Museu one of the best chocolate shops in Barcelona, but the exhibits will tell you everything you wanted to know about chocolate but didn’t know to ask.

The museum starts off with displays on the history of chocolate.  From the cocoa bean’s humble beginning in South America, it became a valuable trading commodity, then a delicacy for the wealthy, before modern processing methods made chocolate a treat for the masses.  In the museum you can see examples of machinery used for processing cocoa into chocolate.

The next part of the museum is a sculpture gallery of chocolate.  In the hands of the right artist, anything can be made out of chocolate -- including miniature replicas of the lizard from Park Guell and the entire Sagrada Familia

Of course, no trip to a chocolate museum would be complete without picking up a bit of chocolate to go at the museum’s café and chocolate shop.

Antoni Tapies has been called Barcelona’s greatest artist of the 20^th century.  The largest collection of his work resides in the foundation that bears his name.

The stylistic delights begin with the building that houses the museum, a former publishing house designed by one of the greats of Modernisme architecture, Lluis Domenech i Montaner.  On top of the building is Cloud and Chair, a large abstract sculpture from Tapies.

Inside the museum, the exhibits change, showing off various collections and aspects of his work.  Recent exhibits have included Tapies:  From Within (June - November 2013), Tapies Collection #6 (November 2013 - February 2014) and Tapies Collection #7 (February - May 2014).  The changing collections at the museum mean that it’s never the same place twice, and modern art fans may want to visit on subsequent trips to Barcelona.

In a city where many of the most notable sights are from recent history, this museum is a calm oasis of ancient artifacts in the Eixample neighborhood.  Right down the street from the Fundacio Tapies and the Mansana de la Discordia is Spain’s only Egyptian museum. 

The collection encompasses over 1000 items from Egypt, as well as a large reading library.  They also have temporary exhibits -- like this one with photos documenting the discovery and excavation of the tomb of king Tutankhamen.  They also have displays that expand on the artifacts, trying to show how they would have been incorporated in the Egyptian tombs thousands of years ago.

Barcelona is a museum lover's delight, with art, architecture, and history on display in museums big and small.  By visiting museums that aren't in every guidebook's top ten list, travelers get a closer, more intimate view of Barcelona's culture.