Barcelona History Museum

The main museum is in Plaça del Rei in the Barri Gotic. This includes an exhibition plus the entrance to the underground archeological site.

MUHBA, which is what the museum is normally known as, also manages many other historic sites all over the city including the remains of the Temple of Augustus etc. These are mostly remains of buildings or archeological sites rather than museums in the normal sense of the word.

If you’re interested in history, I can also warmly recommend the Museum of Catalan History at Port Vell on the waterfront, which is a museum in a much more traditional sense.

Thank you very much to the person from the UK. Having been to Rome and seen it’s abundant archeological sites this might be very small in scale, but worthwhile knowing that the Romans were in Barcelona as well. What do you think?

Hi Yvonne, regarding MUHBA, it's a bit confusing, but think of it as an organization that conserves several historic sites important to the collective history of Barcelona.

Their centerpiece historic site is the Plaça del Rei which incorporates the subterranean ruins of Roman Barcelona (Barcino) along with the medieval royal palace, Palau Reial, which is built above the ruins. For me, the really cool part is the 4,000 square meter Roman subterranean archaeological site, directly below the Gothic Quarter (you actually have to take an elevator down to get there!) You then ascend to the medieval Palau Reial, which notably hosted Christopher Columbus on his return from his first voyage in 1492.

I've been to Rome too, and personally I think the Roman ruins underneath the Plaça del Rei are worth it, they really help to tell the story of Barcelona in a tangible way, from Roman to Medieval times. The ruins are also relatively less touristy than the other major sites around Barcelona.

Thank you Carlos. I will work this into the sites we see.