Diocese Museum | Barcelona Bus Turístic

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Diocese Museum

A journey through Catalan religious art

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  • Barcelona Diocese Museum
  • Barcelona Diocese Museum
  • Barcelona Diocese Museum

A Gothic building with a Catalan Renaissance structure exhibits more than 3,000 works of religious art. Two steel doors featuring abstract forms in Barcelona’s Pia Almoina building welcome you to the Diocese Museum.

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Why visit the Diocese Museum?

The Diocese Museum is located in the building that was constructed over the Roman wall for an order of Augustinian Canons associated with Barcelona Cathedral. Following the dissolution of the order in 1369 the building was demolished and a new one was built as a new site for the Pia Almoina, the Pious Alms House, which had been established in 1099 to look after the poor and pilgrims. The current building is actually two buildings: the Gothic one, erected in 1435, which still preserves its original door, and the Catalan Renaissance one, built circa 1546 with a large upper gallery.

In the Renaissance part, which is accessed via the abstract steel doors made in 1999 by the sculptor Josep Plandiura, is the collection of the Diocese Museum, which includes Romanesque paintings, tombs, Gothic altarpieces, sculptures, precious metal pieces and liturgical elements from the Archbishop of Barcelona’s collection.

 

How do you get to the Diocese Museum?

Hop off at the Barri Gòtic stop on the Red Route of Barcelona Bus Turístic to get to the Diocese Museum, which is on Avinguda de la Catedral.

 

For the most curious of you

  • Did you know? Pia Almoina was home to Barcelona’s municipal police force, when in the mid-19th century, due to the Confiscation of Mendizábal, many religious institutions disappeared after their buildings were expropriated. It was renovated in 1989 and in 1991 it became the Diocese Museum.
  • Local’s tip: Visitors are greeted on the top floor of the building with a surprising element: a large kaleidoscope that has become one of the museum’s most photographed objects.
  • A must: For fans of religious art.