In the very heart of Barcelona, in the Gothic Quarter, there is a museum that is rightly considered one of the city’s most unusual cultural spaces. The Frederic Marès Museum (Museu Frederic Marès) houses a rich collection of Spanish sculpture and a unique assortment of everyday objects gathered by the passionate collector and sculptor Frederic Marès.
The museum is located in a historic building of the former Royal Palace, next to the cathedral. Since its opening in 1948, it has become not only a repository of art, but also a kind of portal to the past, offering a look at the daily life and tastes of the 19th-century Spanish bourgeoisie.
The main exhibition features an impressive collection of sculpture spanning from antiquity to the 19th century. Medieval art holds a special place here: visitors can see Catalan reliefs, polychrome statues of the Virgin Mary, crosses, and altar pieces created by masters from the 11th to the 15th centuries. Among the most valuable exhibits are a relief attributed to the Maestro de Cabestany and the expressive ‘Pietà’ by Juan de Juni, crafted from terracotta and notable for its striking emotionality.
The exhibition is not limited to the Middle Ages. The museum halls also feature works from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, allowing visitors to trace how artistic styles and religious motifs evolved in Spanish sculpture. Each gallery demonstrates the interweaving of European and Spanish traditions over the centuries, shaping the country’s unique cultural heritage.
Special attention is drawn to the so-called ‘Collector’s Cabinet’—a space on the museum’s upper floors where tens of thousands of items are displayed, reflecting everyday life in past eras. Here, you can see antique fans, clocks, toys, smoking pipes, miniature furniture, as well as rare photographs made using daguerreotype, ambrotype, and ferrotype techniques. This part of the museum, which Mares himself called the ‘Sentimental Museum,’ creates an atmosphere of comfort and nostalgia, allowing visitors to quite literally touch history.
The photography collection deserves special mention: the museum houses one of the most comprehensive public collections of early photographic techniques in Spain, making it fascinating not only for art enthusiasts but also for photography historians.
The museum building itself is a 14th-century architectural monument, once the residence of the Counts of Barcelona and the Kings of Aragon. Its courtyard, with orange trees, myrtles, jasmines, and a fountain, creates an atmosphere of solitude and tranquility, contrasting with the lively streets of the Gothic Quarter.
The Frederic Marès Museum is open to visitors from Tuesday to Saturday from 10:00 to 19:00, and on Sundays and public holidays from 11:00 to 20:00. On certain holidays, opening hours are shortened until 15:00. The museum is located at Plaça de Sant Iu, near the Jaume I metro station (L4 line) and within walking distance of Plaça Catalunya. The standard ticket price is €4.20, with a reduced rate of €2.40 for students, young people, and seniors. Children under 16 can enter for free, as well as all visitors on the first Sunday of the month and on Sundays after 15:00.
A visit to the Frederic Marès Museum offers the chance not only to discover outstanding works of Spanish sculpture, but also to see what everyday life was like for city residents in different eras. This is a place where history and art converge in the heart of Barcelona, offering each guest a unique journey through the pages of the past.
