123 / 344
117
(Catalan) and 5pm (Spanish), included in the entry price – English-language
tours may also be available if you contact the museum in advance. There are
temporary exhibitions (extra charge sometimes levied), plus a library and a
good book and gift shop on the lower floor, and a terrace café upstairs. The
museum also hosts a full programme of study sessions, children’s activities and
themed evening events – the reception desk or website can provide details.
Fundació Francisco Godia
The building next door to the Egyptian museum on c/de València houses the
private art collection of the Fundació
Francisco Godia
(Mon &Wed–Sat 10am–
2pm & 4–7pm, Sun 10am–2pm; €4.50;
T
932 723 180,
W
www.fundacionfgodia
.org;
o
Passeig de Gràcia). Harnessing medieval art, ceramics and modern Catalan
art, in many ways it serves as a taster for the huge collections at Montjuïc in
MNAC, while its small size makes it immediately more accessible.The pieces here
– displayed in hushed rooms where the only sound is the hum of the air condi-
tioning – were collected by aesthete and 1950s racing driver Francisco Godia,
whose medals and cups are the first things you encounter. Beyond lie selected
Romanesque carvings and Gothic paintings, notably work by fifteenth-century
artist Jaume Huguet, and then there’s a jump to the
modernista
paintings of Isidre
Nonell, Santiago Rusiñol and Ramon Casas, among others. There’s a varied
selection of ceramics on show, too, from most of the historically important produc-
tion centres in Spain. From fifteenth-century Valencia originate the
socarrats
,
decorated terracotta panels used to stud ceilings. Not all of the collection can be
shown at any one time, so pieces are rotated on occasion, while special exhibitions
also run in tandem, for which there’s usually no extra charge.
La Pedrera
Antoni Gaudí’s weird apartment building at Pg. de Gràcia 92 (
o
Diagonal) is
simply not to be missed – though you can expect queues whenever you visit.
Constructed as the Casa Milà between 1905 and 1911, and popularly known as
La Pedrera
THE EIXAMPLE
|
Dreta de l’Eixample