Open House Barcelona: 48h of the best architecture

The first 48h Open House BCN, on 16th. and 17th. October, invites Barcelona residents to visit some 130 buildings throughout the city which are noted for their architecture and interior design. The initiative, which has been a success in London and New York, offers a unique opportunity to see inside houses, offices, hotels and mansions.

48h Open House BCN offers views ranging from the latest architecture in 22@ to Art-Noveau gems and 18th-century mansions. The intention is to hold it every year and include every type of building.

We also find variations in the way they are used. There are libraries, churches, restaurants, shops, flats, company headquarters etc., where you will be able to observe how architecture and interior design are adapted to the needs of each.

Visits to some buildings, like private residentials, will be restricted to small groups. Each building will have its own specific visiting hours, so we advise you to consult the 48h Open House BCN website.

Most of the buildings will have architects and other notable people, such as their current owners and users, who will be giving discussions and offering guided tours to explain the most characteristic and distinctive features of each one.

Furthermore, a bike tour round several buildings on the city’s seafront has been organised by the architect Pablo Pluvinet, on Saturday 16 October, and a photography competition aimed at everyone visiting any of the buildings involved in this festival of architecture.

17.000 people at Palau de la Música

Throughout August, Palau de la Música Catalana pulled in over 17,000 people for the two summer  music cycles. This summer was the first time Palau de la Música was open with a musical programme, and it seems the folk of Barcelona liked the idea.

Palau de la Música Catalana (Catalan Music Palace) is one of the select monuments deemed an official UNESCO World Heritage Site and still widely accessible to the citizens of the world. Today, the masterpiece by modernist architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner stands out among the world’s most prestigious concert halls. Both our Hotel Jazz and Hotel 1898 are on short walking distance, offering you luxury accommodation and suites in Barcelone.

Delightful stay at Hotel Granvia

We had a delightful stay at the Granvia Hotel !
Warm and nice welcome, very pleasant, spaceful, very clean room … great location, close to a lot of interesting spots (shops, subway, Ramblas …)
We sure will come back when visiting Barcelona again !

Experience posted by Sophie, August 2010.

Don’t shoot the pianist

The Maria Canals International Music Competition of Barcelona was founded in 1954 by the pianist Maria Canals and her husband, the writer Rossend Llates. This Competition has achieved international prestige since it was accepted by the World Federation of International Music Competitions in 1958.

It is held at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, being endorsed by the World Federation of Music Competitions for the organization of the branches of piano, violin, singing, cello, chamber music, guitar, percussion and flute. Since 1954, the Competition has held over 110 branches, with over 7.000 participants from 100 countries and 180 jury members from all over the world.

The 56th Barcelona Maria Canals International Music Competition will bring together 91 pianists from 26 countries between 13 and 26 March. At the same time, the Off-Competition will be taking piano music to the public.

Maria Canals Competition wants to take advantage of the presence of so many prestigious pianists in the city to take piano music out to the public. More than fifty pianos will be spread around the city so everyone who wants to can play the piano in some very unusual places.

Green spaces, squares and streets will provide the setting for concerts aimed at everyone, children and adults, professionals and amateurs, with grand pianos installed so the participants in the competition can take their art to every corner of the city. Rambla del Raval, Plaça de Sarrià, Can Brians prison and the Line 2 metro station lobby in Plaça de la Universitat are some of the improvised “concert halls” for these young artists.

The Pope will visit Barcelona and Sagrada Familia

On Sunday November 7th, Pope Benedict XVI will come to Barcelona and consecrate the Temple of Sagrada Familia. This piece of news was announced yesterday by Cardinal Archbishop of Barcelona, Lluis Martinez Sistach.

This visit shows the high esteem of the Pope for the catalan architect Antoni Gaudi, added the spoke-person at the Vatican, Federico Lombardi. NN Hotels invites you to discover all Gaudi’s buildings as well as other Art-Noveau works in Barcelona, such as Park Guell or Palau de la Musica, with the Modernism Route.

The last time a Pope was in Barcelona dates from 1982, when John Paul II visited Montserrat, the construction works at Sagrada Familia and celebrated mass at the Camp Nou stadium.

All Barcelona Museums with one single ticket

Imagine a city where you can see one of the most impressive Romanesque art collections and historical paintings that describe the Mediterranean countries during Middle Ages,  and then, just walking ten minutes you are on a modern building featuring an exceptionally comprehensive collection of works by Joan Miró. But don’t stop there. Continue dreaming about a gothic palace where nobles and knights have been replaced by Pablo Picasso works, a city where buildings seem a quarry or even a dragon…

 Now open your eyes. Welcome to Barcelona !!!

U232 Hotel invites you to discover it on an Art Weekend package, which includes:

• 2 nights stay at our U232 Hotel in Barcelona (on a single, double, triple or family room)
• Breakfast in the exclusive U232 buffet restaurant
• Welcome drink in the U232 bar (1 per person)
• 1 Art Ticket per person that entitle you to visit:
  • Museu Picasso: Picasso lived key years in Barcelona – those of his apprenticeship as an artist. He established and maintained strong links to the city throughout his life and it was here where he wanted his museum to be.
  • Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya: MNAC has the best known display of Romanesque frescoes in the whole of Europe, unique both for the quantity and for the quality of the works on show.
  • Fundació Joan Miró: The Foundation holds an exceptionally comprehensive collection of works by Joan Miró.
  • Centre Cultural Caixa Catalunya  – La Pedrera by Antoni Gaudí: Visit the most famous building bythe most famous architect in Barcelona.
  • Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona: One of the largests collections of Contemporary Art in Europe, in a building by Richard Meier.
  • Fundació Antoni Tàpies
  • Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona

Book now your Art Weekend in Barcelona and discover all the museums of the city !!!

Barcelona: one of the world’s happiest city

Barcelona is the third happiest city in the world, according to the American magazine Forbes, overtaken only Rio de Janeiro and Sydney, at first and second places, respectively.

 The list was drawn up from data supplied by a survey among ten thousand people from twenty countries.

Barcelona is recognised for its warm climate, lively culture and football team, as well as its classic Mediterranean nature.

Barcelona is followed by Amsterdam, Melbourne and Madrid, in fourth, fifth and sixth places respectively. Next come San Francisco, Rome, Paris and Buenos Aires, which make up the ten cities perceived to be the happiest in the world, according to Forbes. 

So, why not joining this happiness-circle in one of the best hotels in Barcelona? Núñez i Navarro Hotels brings you 9 centrally located hotels in Barcelona, all different but amazing.

Discover the happiness of Barcelona with www.nnhotels.com

Three Dragons Castle

The Natural Science Museum is hosting the exhibition “The Castle of Three Dragons, from restaurant to Natural Science Museum” which takes a look back over the history and architecture of the building designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner for the 1888 Universal Exhibition. Domènech i Montaner is world-wide known for his later buildings Palau de la Música Catalana and Hospital de Sant Pau, both of them on the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list.

This great building of unpainted brick, crowned with embattlements, known to most as the Three Dragons Castle, is an example of early Barcelona modernism. The building is was built by Domènech i Montaner in 1887. Since 1920 it has housed the Zoology Museum. It preceded the famous Amsterdam Stock Exchange by Berlage (1898) in its use of construction materials: exposed brick and undisguised iron structures. The building is also important for the history of art, because it is the site of the workshops where in the 19th century old artisan techniques in ceramics and iron-working were studied for the first time. This activity led to a resurgence in the decorative arts in Catalonia.

More inf@: Natural Science Museum website

Hospital de Sant Pau: 600 years improving Barcelona

The Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau dates back to 1401 when six hospitals in the city merged, forming the Hospital de la Santa Creu. With the growth of the city and the advances in medicine in the 19th century, the centre was unable to meet the demands of the time and construction of a new building was proposed. The original 15th century buildings, located near Hotel 1898, now house a design school and a library. The new buildings were erected outside the ancient city, on the new ‘Eixample’ and near the Sagrada Familia grounds.

Thanks to the legacy of Pau Gil, a banker, on January 15, 1902 the first stone of the new building was laid. “Sant Pau” was added to the old hospital’s name to honour the wishes of its benefactor. The genious architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner was commissioned with the project. Domènech i Montaner is also known for his work at Palau de la Música Catalana. Over the years, the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau has become the most significant public building in Catalan modernisme. On 1997, the building was acknowledged as World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Recently, Hospital de Sant Pau has been seen in Woody Allen’s movie Vicky Cristina Barcelona and pictured as scenario in Batman‘s Barcelona adventure.

After one century serving the city, the modernist pavilions needed a major update, and a new building will now host all the health services. The modernist pavilions will be fully restored and soon to be used as a permanent seat for the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean, together with other cultural activities.

More inf@:  Hospital de Sant Pau website   ..::.. Tourist information about Hospital de Sant Pau

New Architecture Tour in Barcelona

Our guide was Wendy, a very kind Dutch woman who has been living in Barcelona for years and she was perfectly fluent in Catalan and Spanish, although the tour is in English so everyone can follow her explanations.

We started at 3.30pm at Plaza Catalunya, and went down by Via Laietana on a modern, fast, aircon coach towards Santa Caterina Market, one example of how past and future converge in Barcelona’s architecture. The building that used to be a convent on middle ages is nowadays a top-design building with a sinuous colored roof reminiscent of Gaudí style. Market stands inside offer wide range of fruits, meats and fish on a fresh, light and welcoming atmosphere designed by Catalan architect Enric Miralles.

We continued our tour to the sea, the new façade of the city, were we could visit the Hospital del Mar entrance, an indoors-outdoors space much distant from the claustrophobic traditional waiting area of the medical facilities from the past. From there, we had a wonderful view of the coastal line of Barcelona and its many landmarks, such as the Sail Building, the two twin towers with Frank Gehry’s fish and the Forum resort, our next stop.

Next to the Forum, a new residential area occupies what used to be the industrial grounds of Barcelona. A beautiful transformation that changed old warehouses and factories into crystal skyscrapers and parks, thanks to the creativeness of Enric Miralles.

The tour, after having followed the sea line, returns to the city center by Diagonal avenue, to Glories. There we visited two works by Jean Nouvel: the famous Agbar tower and the Poblenou Park. Although we have seen the Agbar tower many times, it is always impressing and amazing, as its figures are: 4400 windows and 4500 LEDs that can generate 16million colors to the façade.

Our last stop was an original work by Ricard Bofill, who has also signed the new Terminal 1 at Barcelona Airport. The National Theater is a tribute to the Classical temples, with its columns and the reminiscent of the Greek tradition. For those who know the old Barcelona Airport, the conceptual connection is clear both on the columns and on the use of glass.

At the end of the tour, we had the feeling of having discovered a new city, and realized that Barcelona is still growing and changing, as it has always been since its foundation by the Roman more than 2000 years ago.

Barcelona Guide Bureau is a tour operator founded in 1990 by a group of local expert guides. BGB specializes in guided tours in and around Barcelona and we are known for our quality service and reliability. All guides are local licensed experts and are friendly, interesting and considerate people who will make sure you have the best possible tour. BGB also has an interesting blog about Barcelona history and highlights. Núñez i Navarro Hotels can assist you in booking tours to explore Barcelona. Ask for more information when making your hotel reservation, or at Front Desk once you are checked in.

NN Hotels contributed to the new Barcelona architecture with B-Hotel in Plaza Espanya and Soho Hotel in Gran Via; both selected on the Barcelona Design Tour.

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