MUHBA Padellàs

C. Veguer, s/n. Office: Baixada de Llibreteria, núm. 7
08002 Barcelona
Tel. 93 256 21 00
museuhistoria@bcn.cat

Barcelona’s House of History

Casa Padellàs is an early 16th-century palace that was moved, nearly one hundred years ago, from Carrer dels Mercaders to Plaça del Rei as part of the plans to form a "Gothic quarter". Converted into the House of History, it is an experimental museum space, a project with many formats that approaches Barcelona from its urban history and heritage within an environment of research and participatory activities.

The structure of MUHBA Padellàs as Barcelona’s House of History is distributed from the bottom up according to the degree of intensity in its use:

- On the ground floor, the Agora BCN as a point of convergence among citizens, an open public space for information about the city to promote new ways of getting to know it, and the Museum School, which blurs the barrier between education and culture.

- On the first and second floors, Barcelona Flashback. Historical Synthesis is a general exhibition of synthesis that invites us to read the human and urban landscapes of different neighbourhoods and then goes on to question Barcelona and its options over the course of the centuries. The first floor also houses Urban Monographs, a flexible space designed to house temporary exhibitions.

- On the upper floor we find the Centre for Research, Documentation and Debate, a space for the construction of new knowledge with a wide-ranging public programme of courses, seminars, and open dialogues, a library-archive and two major urban viewpoints. With the idea of becoming a gateway for visiting the city, the Àgora BCN is a space conceived, together with the Clock Courtyard, as an extension of the street and, therefore, of free circulation, where visitors will find information and resources about the history and heritage of Barcelona that will help them to tour the city in a documented way and with a different approach, as well as offering a few initial insightsin relation to the contents and raison d'être of the MUHBA.

Kilometre zero for visiting Barcelona

It is kilometre zero for visiting Barcelona in a different way, with a variety of free-access resources, such as the Europa Inter Urbes cities planetarium, the Historical Map of Barcelona, or a panoramic video about the historical formation of a major city.

The range of proposals offered by the Àgora BCN enables visitors to get an idea of Barcelona through different formats arranged like a cabinet of curiosities for urban exploration; a meeting point to encourage alternative and personalised ways of visiting the city through the spaces of the museum, which will be attended by qualified staff in order to guide visitors and explain these new proposals to them.

The new transparent covering of the courtyard has made it possible to install the great municipal clock of 1576, the so-called Flemish Clock, which marked the time in the city until 1864, when it was replaced by the current clock. Accompanying it is an exhibition of a set of clocks from different periods and places in the city, a metaphor for the times of Barcelona and the memory and history of the city.

Visitors will be able to enter, also free of charge, the Antoni de Capmany auditorium to see the panoramic documentary Barcelona, la formació d’una capital (Barcelona, the formation of a capital) which summarizes, in a few minutes, 2000 years of the city’s historical and urban trajectory. There will be screenings from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., at 00, 20 and 40 minutes past each hour.

This first approach can be completed in the adjacent consultation space, which will offer the possibility of obtaining personalised information from qualified staff to learn about new ways of visiting Barcelona. Visitors will also be able to consult materials such as maps, urban guides, books, and tools such as the Historical Map of Barcelona or the Europa Inter Urbes interactive tool, all freely accessible.

The exhibitions

Barcelona Flashback.Historical Synthesis

Barcelona Flashback. Historical Synthesis is the core exhibition of the network of spaces that make up the MUHBA.Located at the Casa Padellàs, it offers a flexible, open, and interrogative proposal based around the urban narratives of Barcelona.
Link to the exhibition

Urban monographs. Temporary exhibitions

As the inaugural temporary exhibition of MUHBA Padellàs – Barcelona House of History, and coinciding with Domènech i Montaner year, the exhibition Domènech i Montaner, Urban Planner, is presented, organised by the Lluís Domènech i Montaner Private Foundation and the MUHBA – Barcelona History Museum.
Link to the exhibition