Plaça de Rei

The monumental complex of Plaça del Rei has been the founding core of the Barcelona History Museum since its creation in 1943. The remains included in the monumental complex of Plaça del Rei include Roman Barcino from the 1st century BC, Visigothic Barchinona from the 7th century AD and medieval Barcelona from the 13th century. Visitors to this underground area can walk along the streets of Roman Barcelona, past the city wall; they can look around a laundry from the 2nd century A.D. and see the remains of the city's first Christian community, as well as other spaces. This site also features some important medieval buildings, such as Palau Reial, the Chapel of Santa Àgata and Saló del Tinell, in addition to the Gothic palace known as Casa Padellàs.

The site, declared a Site of Cultural Interest, preserves archaeological remains dating from the 1st century BC to the 7th century AD. Vistors will discover a neighbourhood of workshops and processing industries, including a fullonica and a dye house from the 2nd century AD, workshops where clothes were washed and rags or used garments were dyed. They will also visit a cetaria, a factory from the 3rd century AD, dedicated to salting fish and making derived sauces, such as garum. The archaeological tour allows you to enter a winery and see how wine was made during the second half of the 3rd century AD. The episcopal complex of Barcino, consisting of the episcopal hall, the baptistery, the episcopal residence, and a cruciform church, allows us to see the evolution of a part of the city from the 4th to the 8th century.

In the rooms of the main palace, and through the pieces of the collection, the formation of the medieval city and its transformation into the capital of a Mediterranean empire can be seen, as well as its growth and fortification process, leading to the city's government. The role of Barcelona in the context of Catalonia and the Mediterranean, as well as the daily lives of its inhabitants, are also explained.

This complex also includes Casa Padellàs, a former palace from the early 16th century that was moved, almost a hundred years ago, from Carrer Mercaders to Plaça del Rei. Converted into the Casa de la Història, it is an experimental museum space, a project with different formats that addresses Barcelona through urban history and heritage in an environment of research and participatory activities. On the first and second floors, Barcelona Flashback. Historical Synthesis is a general synthesis exhibition that invites us to read the human and urban landscapes of diverse neighbourhoods and then goes on to examine Barcelona and its choices throughout the centuries. The first floor also contains a flexible space for temporary exhibitions.

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

Temporary exhibition 'Barcelona, port mediterrani entre oceans. El testimoni del vaixell Barceloneta I'
Installation, in the antechamber of the Tinell, of the Barceloneta I ship found at the old Rodalies station, restored by the Underwater Archeology Center and the Barcelona History Museum and installed through to the Port of Barcelona, ​​a member institution of the Museum Circle.

Barcelona Flashback. Historical Synthesis is a synthesis exhibition that showcases Barcelona's two-thousand-year history using a method of interrogative historical reading of documents, objects, architecture, and landscapes.

Guide to the centre