The buildings
The Picasso Museum occupies five large town houses or palaces on the street carrer de Montcada. The original palaces date from the 13th-15th centuries, undergoing major refurbishments over time, the most important in the 18th century.
The palaces are a good example of Catalan civic gothic style. They have a common structure surrounding a courtyard with access to the main floor via an outdoor open stairway.
During the 13th and 14th centuries, the palace belonged to several noble families from the court of Aragón. It was bought by the Coromines-Desplà in 1386, members of the Barcelona haute-bourgeoisie who, in 1400, sold it to the merchant Berenguer d’Aguilar.
Successive generations of the Aguilar family refurbished the property, leaving traces of very diverse styles. The palace passed to the Clerch and Pons families in 1837 and finally, on November 3rd 1953, Barcelona City Council bought it, carrying out extensive restoration work due to the building’s terrible state-of-repair.
The central courtyard with the open-air stairway, pointed arch gallery and flamboyant Gothic sculptures dates from the 15th century. There are coffered ceilings on the first floor.
The remains of a large late 13th century fresco are conserved, evoking the conquest of Majorca by Jaume I in 1229. The mural was uncovered during restoration work in the ‘60s, on removing the wall coverings in one of the galleries and was moved to the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, where it is housed today.
The history of the owners dates back to the 13th and 14th centuries. The Gerona family owned the palace in the 15th century and it was occupied by several Catalan aristocratic and bourgeois families from the 16th to 18th centuries between sales and inheritances.
It received its name from the title awarded in 1797 to the owner and renovator of the building Marià Alegre d’Aparici I d’Amat by King Carles IV.
In the mid-18th century, the Baron of Castellet ordered a neo-classical room be built with marble elements and polychrome motifs, a mix of classical and baroque elements lending the room the sumptuousness of European classicism. Upon his death in 1831, the baron left it to Santa Creu Hospital.
In the second half of the 19th century, the building was rented by different tenants until it was bought by the Rius family. In the 1950s, it passed into the hands of Barcelona City Council.
A palace from the 13th-14th centuries that was heavily renovated in the 18th like the other palaces on the street. It is set around a central courtyard in the mediaeval style with preserved coffered polychrome mediaeval ceilings and 19th century decorative ceilings on the main floor.
The oldest known documentation shows that the palace was owned by Jaume Caveller – head councillor at Barcelona City Council – in 1349. His daughter Felipona married the politician Ramon Desplà and their son, Ramon Desplà i Cavaller, made the Desplà Palace the most important building of the entire block of houses.
It passed into the hands of the Cassadors or Caçadors and their heirs in the 16th century, the Marquises of Ciudadella, the first of whom was Josep Meca i Caçador who gave his name to the palace. His widow sold the house to the merchant Segimon Milans in 1719. The Milans family orchestrated the major renovation of the building which had been largely destroyed by the 1714 bombardment.
It passed to the Sisters of Christian Doctrine with the Santa Madrona friendly society being set up in 1901, later becoming part of a banking institution’s benevolent fund. The latter and Barcelona City Council signed a transfer agreement for the palace on 5th December 1977 and, thanks to this agreement, the renovation and extension project at the Picasso Museum was begun in 1981, opening to the public officially on 11th January 1982. The renovation served to connect the Meca Palace to the Aguilar and Baró de Castellet palaces.
It is possible that the house once formed part of the neighbouring Meca Palace outbuildings in the 13th century. Between 1378 and 1516, it belonged to the Rocha family with documentation missing until 1716, when it was inhabited by F. Casamada.
The building underwent many renovations, the most important in 1872 when it was joined to the neighbouring house, the palau Finestres, owned by Josep Vidal i Torrents. From that moment, a large part of the building was given over to industrial purposes. In 1943, it was purchased by Mauri confectioners. It became a part of the Picasso Museum in 1999.
As with the rest of the palaces that constitute the Picasso Museum, the Finestres Palace retains original buildings from the 13th century. The building was built atop the remains of a necropolis dating from the end of the Roman era. The house is set around a large courtyard with the characteristic outdoor stairway leading to the main floor. The ground floor preserves a series of rooms with exquisite arcades. The first floor houses two large triple windows with windowpanes or columns. It preserves a magnificent coffered ceiling from the late 13th / early 14th centuries which has been restored. The top floor has an elevation and open or sun gallery.
The most important reforms were undertaken in the 15th and 17th-18th centuries when the round arch gallery crowning the inner courtyard was added.
The building belonged to the Marimon family from 1363 to 1516. In 1698, it passed to the Dalmases family, owners of the Dalmases Palace at Number 20, Carrer de Montcada. In 1872, Josep Vidal i Torrents bought the property and attached it to casa Mauri. Barcelona City Council purchased it in 1970 and it is presently used to house temporary exhibitions at the Picasso Museum.
The street called Carrer de Montcada is today the most important area of mediaeval civic architecture in the city.
It starts with the Romanesque Marcus chapel (12th century) and finishes at Plaça del Born. It used to be all one single street until the 19th century, when it was divided into two by the opening of Carrer Princesa in 1853.
Its name derives from the important Montcada family from Barcelona who, it appears, received the land in the 12th century for the support lent to King Ramon Berenguer IV by Guillem Ramon de Montcada during the conquest of Majorca.
The first homes outside the city walls emerged in the mid-12th century. The street linked the Bòria commercial district with the old sailing quarter of Vilanova del Mar, leading to the creation of the Ribera district. At the end of that century, the area was incorporated into the new city walls, experiencing its greatest splendour from the 15th to the 16th century. It was then an aristocratic street inhabited by noble families and rich merchants who had earned their fortune from the sea trade.
At the end of the 19th and in the early 20th century, the street underwent significant alterations and a decline in the area’s residential nature.
The street was declared an artistic-historical heritage site in 1947.
The Picasso Museum was first opened in the Gothic Aguilar Palace palau gòtic Aguilar (Montcada, 15) in 1963. The City Council extended the museum by annexing the Baró de Castellet Palace palau del Baró de Castellet (Montcada, 17) in 1970 and then with the Meca Palace palau Meca (Montcada, 19). A new museum extension was opened in 1999 at the casa Mauri and the Finestres Palace palau Finestres with space for temporary exhibitions. These five palaces presently constitute the Barcelona Picasso Museum.
The street known as Carrer de Montcada follows the same route that once linked the port and the road leading to Rome from the western side of the first walled city of Barcelona (the present-day Plaça de l’Àngel). The lower part of the street was occupied by an extensive area of the necropolis that surrounded the early Santa Maria del Mar church from the end of the Roman era.
It starts with the Romanesque Marcus chapel (12th century) and finishes at Plaça del Born. It used to be all one single street until the 19th century, when it was divided into two by the opening of Carrer Princesa in 1853.
Its name derives from the important Montcada family from Barcelona who, it appears, received the land in the 12th century for the support lent to King Ramon Berenguer IV by Guillem Ramon de Montcada during the conquest of Majorca.
The first homes outside the city walls emerged in the mid-12th century. The street linked the Bòria commercial district with the old sailing quarter of Vilanova del Mar, leading to the creation of the Ribera district. At the end of that century, the area was incorporated into the new city walls.
Large land-owning and merchant families began to choose the street to set up their homes from the 13th century onwards, building large houses which, over time, became city palaces.
New streets appeared in the 14th century and the surrounding protection provided the houses with a more open structure, with large windows to all floors and gardens.
The year 1428 marked a difficult time due to the earthquakes, that even destroyed the big rose window at Santa Maria del Mar church and cracked the walls of many houses, some of which had to have their upper floors pulled down.
Once the 15th century civil war against the King of Aragon, Joan II, came to an end, the area prospered once again became the heart of trade in the city. Throughout the 16th century, the bourgeoisie and merchants had increasing family ties, enlarging investments in farming and their stately power, with the street enjoying a time of splendour.
Many palaces were refurbished and other new homes built in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The area experienced profound changes in the 19th century. The building of the Eixample district in the second half of the 19th century saw many moneyed families move and, further still, the opening of the Via Laietana in 1907 marked a decline in the area’s residential nature.
The street was declared an artistic-historical heritage site in 1947. In the fifties, a group of famous people and artistic figures from the Barcelona cultural scene, under the name of ‘Friends of the Carrer de Montcada’, promoted the regeneration of the street as a cultural and museum centre.
The Picasso Museum was first opened in the Gothic Aguilar Palace palau gòtic Aguilar (Montcada, 15) in 1963. The City Council extended the museum by annexing the Baró de Castellet Palace palau del Baró de Castellet (Montcada, 17) in 1970 and then with the Meca Palace palau Meca (Montcada, 19). A new museum extension was opened in 1999 at the casa Mauri and the Finestres Palace palau Finestres with space for temporary exhibitions. These five palaces presently constitute the Barcelona Picasso Museum.
The Museu Picasso of Barcelona currently occupies five grand houses or palaces dating from the XIII to XIV centuries, that have undergone various refurbishings over the years, with the most important taking place in the XVIII century.
From the first opening of the Museu Picasso in 1963 to the present day, we have grown from using one palace to the five palaces of today.
The expansion of the Museu Picasso, promoted and financed by the Barcelona City Council, has been undertaken in successive stages by the architect Jordi Garcés. The project has followed a global architectural plan strated to design by this architect in 1978.
The current surface occupies 11,500 square metres with 22 rooms in the permanent exhibition.
1970
The Museu Picasso was enlarged with the annexing of the Palau Baró de Castellet (Montcada, 17).
1981
Annexing of the Palau Meca (Montcada, 19).
1999
New enlargement of the Museu Picasso – with the renovation of the Casa Mauri and the Palau Finestres (Montcada 21 & 23) as spaces used for temporary exhibitions.
2003
Remodelling of the interior spaces in the permanent exhibition.
The two latest architectural and museum refurbishings, carried out in 1999 and 2003, have meant:
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Creation of new more ample and sober exhibition areas, with natural daylight.
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The creation of a continuous walkway between the five palaces, with free open access to the public.
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Modernising of the museum’s facilities and museographic devices.
2009
July 10 - Start of works on the new building.
2011
Presentation of the new building, home of the Knowledge and Research Center (pl. Sabartés, 1):
El creixement dels palaus del Museu Picasso, Barcelona
Restoration of two pieces of stone from the Palau Aguilar
