Barcelona Guide
The waterfront
Museu d'Història de Catalunya
Address: Port Vell
Opening time: Tues & Thurs– Sat 10am–7pm, Wed 10am–8pm, Sun & holidays 10am–2.30pm
Price: €4, first Sun of month & public holidays free
Telephone: 932 254 700
Website: www.mhcat.net
The only surviving warehouse on the Port Vell harbourside, the Palau de Mar, is home to the Museu d'Història de Catalunya, which traces the history of Catalunya from the Stone Age to the twentieth century. It's a spacious exhibition area wrapped around a wide atrium, with temporary shows on the ground floor and a lift to take you to the permanent displays on the upper floors: second floor for year dot to the Industrial Revolution, and third for periods and events up to 1980 (though later coverage is planned).
You can pick up full English notes at the desk, and there's plenty to get your teeth into, whether it's poking around the interior of a Roman grain ship or comparing the rival nineteenth-century architectural plans for the Eixample. There's a dramatic Civil War section, while other fascinating asides shed light on matters as diverse as housing in the 1960s or the origins of the design of the Catalan flag. On the fourth floor, La Miranda café boasts a glorious view from its huge terrace of the harbour, Tibidabo, Montjuïc and the city skyline – you don't need a museum ticket to visit this and it's open as a café during museum hours, with a set lunch, as well as for à la carte dinners.
The fish and seafood restaurants in the Palau de Mar arcade are some of the most popular in the city, especially at weekends. Here you overlook the packed marina, where Catalans park their yachts like they park their cars – impossibly tightly – fronted in summer by hawkers spreading blankets on the ground to sell jewellery and sunglasses. A boat near the Palau de Mar in the marina has been converted into a floating bar, the Luz de Gas.