Explore Sant Cugat del Vallès

The Arc de Triomf is a red-brick memorial arch in the Neo-Mudéjar style, designed by Josep Vilaseca i Casanovas as the main entrance to the 1888 Barcelona World Fair. It spans the promenade of Passeig de Lluís Companys, which leads to Parc de la Ciutadella, and its front frieze carries Josep Reynés's relief Barcelona Welcomes the Nations.

The Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) stands on Plaça dels Àngels in El Raval, in a white building with a long glass front designed by the American architect Richard Meier and opened in 1995. Its galleries show the museum's collection of art from the mid-20th century onwards alongside changing temporary exhibitions.

The Palau de la Música Catalana is a concert hall in the Sant Pere quarter, designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner and built between 1905 and 1908 for the choral society Orfeó Català. Its brick facade carries mosaic-clad columns and sculpture, and the auditorium is lit by a stained-glass skylight; guided visits run by day and concerts in the evening.

Plaça d'Espanya is a large circular square at the foot of Montjuïc, laid out for the 1929 International Exposition. Its centre holds a fountain designed by Josep Maria Jujol with sculptures by Miquel Blay, and two 47-metre Venetian Towers mark the avenue leading up to the Palau Nacional. The former Arenas bullring stands on its north side.

La Boqueria, officially the Mercat de Sant Josep, is a large covered food market off La Rambla in the Ciutat Vella. A market is recorded on the site from 1217; the present hall was inaugurated in 1853 and given its metal roof in 1914. Its stalls sell fruit, vegetables, fish, meat, cheese and spices, and several counters serve food.

The Erotic Museum Barcelona occupies an upper floor of a building on La Rambla, opposite the Boqueria market, and opened in 1997 as the first museum in Spain devoted to erotic art. Its collection of around 800 pieces includes sculptures, paintings and prints from several cultures, photographs, and films commissioned by King Alfonso XIII.

Barcelona Cathedral, dedicated to the Holy Cross and Saint Eulalia, is the seat of the Archbishop of Barcelona in the Gothic Quarter. It was built mainly between the 13th and 15th centuries and received its neo-Gothic main facade in the late 19th century. The crypt holds the relics of Saint Eulalia, and the cloister, completed in 1448, encloses the Font de les Oques.

The Museu de la Xocolata is a museum of chocolate run by the Barcelona pastry makers' guild, opened in 2000 on the ground floor of the former Sant Agustí convent and barracks in El Born. It traces the history of cocoa and chocolate and shows chocolate sculptures of Barcelona buildings and characters from stories, and runs workshops for visitors.

La Rambla is a tree-lined pedestrian promenade that runs for 1.2 km from Plaça de Catalunya to the Columbus Monument at Port Vell, between the Barri Gòtic and El Raval. It is made up of several shorter sections, each with its own name, and passes the Boqueria market, the Liceu opera house, flower stalls and pavement cafés.

The Museum of the History of Barcelona, MUHBA, traces the city from Roman Barcino to the present. Its main site on Plaça del Rei, opened in 1943, leads underground through excavated streets and workshops of the Roman town and up into the medieval royal palace with the Saló del Tinell and the Chapel of Santa Àgata.

The Ancient Synagogue of Barcelona is a small stone building on Carrer de Marlet in the Call, the city's medieval Jewish quarter, identified as its main synagogue, which fell out of use after the massacre of 1391. Bought by Miguel Iaffa in 1995 and restored by the Associació Call de Barcelona, it opened to visitors in 2002 as a synagogue and small museum.

The European Museum of Modern Art (MEAM) is a private museum of contemporary figurative art in the Palau Gomis, a palace near the Museu Picasso in the La Ribera district that was rebuilt in 1792 for the textile merchant Gomis. Opened in 2011 by the Fundación de las Artes y los Artistas, it shows 20th-century sculpture and 21st-century figurative painting and sculpture.

The Barcelona Pavilion is a reconstruction of the German Pavilion that Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich designed for the 1929 International Exposition on Montjuïc. The original was demolished in 1930 and rebuilt in 1986; its thin flat roof, walls of marble, onyx and travertine, and shallow pools are shown with the Barcelona chairs designed for it.

The Museu Picasso holds more than 4,000 works by Pablo Picasso in five adjoining medieval palaces on Carrer de Montcada in the La Ribera district. Opened in 1963 as the first museum devoted to his work, it focuses on his formative years and his ties to Barcelona, with early paintings such as The First Communion (1896) and Science and Charity (1897).

The Magic Fountain of Montjuïc is an illuminated fountain designed by Carles Buïgas for the 1929 International Exposition, at the head of Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina below the Palau Nacional. On set evenings it stages shows of water jets, coloured light and music, pumping about 2,600 litres of water a second through three concentric basins.

Poble Espanyol is an open-air architectural museum on Montjuïc, built for the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition. Its 117 full-scale buildings reproduce streets, squares and houses from regions across Spain, and now hold artisan workshops, restaurants and the Fran Daurel museum of contemporary art.

The Gran Teatre del Liceu is Barcelona's opera house on La Rambla, opened at this address in 1847. Destroyed by fire in 1861 and again in 1994, it was rebuilt both times and reopened in 1999. It stages opera, ballet and concerts and has its own symphony orchestra, choir and music conservatory.

Palau Dalmases is a noble town house on Carrer de Montcada in La Ribera, rebuilt from 1698 for the merchant Pau Dalmases after the siege of 1697 left it in ruins. Its courtyard keeps a Baroque open staircase with Solomonic columns and a carved frieze of the Rape of Europa and Neptune's chariot. The house now hosts flamenco shows several times a day.

Parc de la Ciutadella is a 31-hectare park on the edge of the Ciutat Vella, laid out from 1872 to plans by Josep Fontserè on the site of an 18th-century military citadel and later used for the 1888 World Fair. It contains a boating lake, the monumental Cascada fountain, the Parliament of Catalonia, Barcelona Zoo and several 19th-century buildings.

Los Tarantos is a flamenco tablao on Plaça Reial in Barcelona's Gothic Quarter, opened in 1963 by Marta Vilardell and named after the tarantos flamenco style and the film Los Tarantos, shot in the city. Antonio Gades and Maruja Garrido performed here; today it stages short shows of about 40 minutes, several each evening.