Museums & exhibition centres
On 13th February 1937, Barcelona was subjected to the first of the 192 bombing raids by Franco"s army. This attack made the civilian population the unwitting protagonists of the war. The Passive Defence Board was set up in order to tackle the situation and save the lives of the local residents. The first shelters were set up in the basements of houses and in metro stations. However, as the bombings intensified, people joined together to build air-raid shelters.
The Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya is housed in the former
Barcelona's Palace of Graphic Arts on Montjuïc, which was built for the 1929 International Exhibition. The museum takes visitors back in time to discover the distant roots of Catalonia's history while giving an insight into the lives of different related cultures from other areas of the Iberian Peninsula and the Mediterranean.
The museum opened in 1996 in Barcelona with the aim of disseminating the history of Catalonia. It is housed in the former general warehouse in the old port, the Port Vell, which was built in 1901 and is known as the
Palau del Mar.
The city's wax museum is located in a 19th-century landmark palazzo which stands just off the famous Rambla, and brings to life some of the most prominent figures from the history of mankind.
The Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona now has new premises in a building in the Forum precinct, by the sea and the Besòs river, designed by the architects Herzog & De Meuron.
