Palau de la Música Catalana (Palace of Catalan Music)

Chapter 10/11 · Barcelona

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The Palau de la Música Catalana is a jewel of Catalan Modernisme, the work of the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner. The first stone was laid on 23 April 1905 and it was inaugurated on 9 February 1908. It is the home of the Orfeó Català, the choir founded in 1891 by Lluís Millet and Amadeu Vives, and it was paid for by industrialists and music lovers.

On the corner, like the prow of a ship, is the sculptural group “La cançó popular catalana” (Catalan folk song) by Miquel Blay: at the top, Saint George; in the centre, a large female figure; and around her, sailors, farmers, old people and children, a symbol that the Palau was for all the people. Look too at the columns covered in colourful mosaic and ceramics.

Inside, the concert hall is surrounded by stained glass, and the ceiling features a great glass skylight shaped like an inverted sun, by Antoni Rigalt. Richard Strauss, Igor Stravinsky, Arthur Rubinstein and Pau Casals have all performed here. In 1997 UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site.

We return along Carrer de Sant Pere Més Alt, cross the Via Laietana and, by Carrer del Doctor Joaquim Pou and the Avinguda de la Catedral, head back to the Pla de la Seu.

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