MACBA – CCCB stop
At this stop you can explore the lively Raval district, contemplate gems of Gothic and Neoclassical architecture and visit two major cultural centres: the Barcelona Centre of Contemporary Culture (CCCB) and the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA).
The gateway to the Raval district
The Raval dates back to the 14th century when it sprung up around convents and fields of crops and was home, during its first urbanisation period, to utilitarian buildings like hospitals, orphanages and leprosariums. A building that has survived from that period is the Old Hospital de la Santa Creu, which was the city of Barcelona’s general hospital from 1401 to 1926 and is now home to the Library of Catalonia. It is a grandiose Gothic building composed of three structures that shares the enclosure with the Royal Academy of Medicine, which is from the 18th century and constitutes one of the most important works of Neoclassical architecture to be found in Barcelona. Inside you can see an 18th-century anatomical theatre and dissection table.
The Raval is now a district that has been fully revamped, largely thanks to the establishment of two key centres in the cultural panorama of post-Olympic Barcelona. The first to be opened, in 1994, was the Barcelona Centre of Contemporary Culture (CCCB), an avant-garde centre whose conversion from the old Casa de la Caritat almshouse won the FAD design award. Just a year later, next to the CCCB but with its main entrance on Plaça dels Àngels, the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) was opened. It is an impressive construction in glass and white aluminium designed by Richard Meier that changed the entire layout of the square and quickly became a symbol of the new Raval. Since then, the MACBA has brought together numerous collections of contemporary art that were previously held at other locations throughout the city.
Very close to these centres is a key building from the Rationalist movement, the tuberculosis dispensary, designed by architects from the GATCPAC collective like Josep Lluís Sert.
What to see
CCCB – Barcelona Centre of Contemporary CultureOne of Barcelona’s most avant-garde cultural sites is actually a converted almshouse.
MACBA – Barcelona Museum of Contemporary ArtA large museum in glass and white aluminium that fills the Raval district with light and houses works from the middle of the 20th century to the present day.
Old Hospital de la Santa CreuBarcelona’s general hospital for five centuries, a masterpiece of Catalan Gothic civil architecture and now the Library of Catalonia.
Historic University of Barcelona BuildingIn addition to being a fine example of neo-Gothic architecture, the University of Barcelona building represents a symbol of the return of higher education to the city after a century of absence.
El RavalThis district with its maze of small streets has left its past of marginalisation behind to become a new centre of culture in Barcelona.
Royal Academy of Medicine of CataloniaA Neoclassical architecture building that conserves an anatomical theatre and a dissection table from the 18th century.
Central Antituberculosis ClinicAn L-shaped set of three cement buildings constitutes one of the milestones of Rationalist architecture in Catalonia.