Historical Museum of the City of Barcelona
The Historical Museum of the City of Barcelona ( Catalan : Museu d'Història de Barcelona , abbreviated MUHBA , Spanish : Museo de Historia de Barcelona ) is a museum that preserves, documents, maintains and exhibits the cultural heritage of Barcelona from its beginnings to the present.
The MUHBA is a municipal institution. It has its central administration on Plaça del Rei (English: King's Square) in the center of Barcelona's old town and has various branches throughout the city. It opened on April 14, 1943.
history
Since the world exhibition in Barcelona in 1888 there had been repeated attempts to set up a permanent exhibition and to compile a municipal collection on the history of Barcelona.
Due to the construction of the wide thoroughfare Via Laietana , the Gothic palace Casa Padellàs had to be moved from Carrer de Mercaders to Plaça del Rei in 1931 . During the preparation of the foundation at the new location, remains of the Roman settlement of Barcino were discovered and led to further archaeological excavations throughout the square, which lasted until the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). These excavations, together with the medieval Palau Reial Major (English: Royal Main Palace), were the starting point for the city museum.
The museum was finally opened in 1943, after the Spanish Civil War, as the Museu de la Historia de la Ciudad (German: Museum of City History). The first director was the historian Agustí Duran i Sanpere.
The museum was based on municipal collections that had been brought together since the 19th century, as well as the building complex on Plaça del Rei ( Casa Padellàs , Palau Reial Major and the Roman excavations). Little by little, new monuments were added: a Roman temple, the Roman cemetery at Plaça Vila de Madrid (discovered in 1954). In addition, the Gallery of Famous Catalans and the Vil·la Joana became part of the museum.
In addition to the integration of various cultural heritage sites into the museum's operation, close cooperation with the archaeological service and archaeological research were central characteristics of the museum from the very beginning. For a long time, the city's archeology department was directly connected to the museum.
Archaeological excavations on the Roman city wall made it possible to add more significant evidence of the Roman settlement to the museum's collection. An early Christian baptistery was discovered during excavations under the cathedral in 1968.
Until 1993 a permanent exhibition was shown at the headquarters of Casa Padellàs , which conveyed the organization of the ancient city, the political and religious life of medieval Barcelona, textile production as well as the customs and festivals of the city. 19th century Barcelona, urban reforms and the construction of Via Laietana were also part of this permanent exhibition. Since 1993, the museum in the Casa Padellàs palace has been devoting itself to individual aspects with changing exhibitions. New research findings are always incorporated into it and these are conveyed with the help of modern technology and new exhibits.
The MUHBA suggested the establishment of a European association of city museums, which has been meeting regularly since 2010 to enable joint projects and an exchange of experience between city museums across Europe.
Locations of the MUHBA
In the last few decades, the city museum's interest has focused on contemporary Barcelona and has grown to include additional locations spread across the city. These are (as of September 2013):
- Plaça del Rei : Headquarters of the museum. The entrance is at Casa Padellàs , a palace from the 15th / 16th centuries. Century, an example of civil architecture. In the basement of the museum, theremains of the Roman and late antique settlement ( Barcino ) can beviewed on an area of 4000 m 2 . In addition, the medieval Royal Palace ( Palau Real Major ) and the Saló del Tinell as well as the Chapel of St. Agathe ( Capilla Santa Àgata , 14th century) are part of the museum.
- Augustus Temple : pillars and foundation of an ancient Augustus temple that were rediscovered at the beginning of the 20th century.
- Via Sepulcral Romana ("Roman funeral street "): In 1954,the exceptionally well-preserved graves of 85 people who died in the period of the Roman settlement of Barcino in the 1st to 3rd centuries ADwere discovered in today's Plaça Vila de Madrid had been buried on an arterial road.
- Sea gate of the roman walls
- Roman house (domus) on Carrer Sant Honorat : remains of a Roman domus and a medieval department store. Below the current administrative building of the Generalitat de Catalunya, architectural remains of the previous buildings have been preserved, made into a museum and can be viewed.
- Roman house (domus) on Carrer Avinyó
- MUHBA El Call: Information center about the life of the Jewish population in medieval Barcelona in the Jewish quarter "El Call": There the medieval topography, the Jewish community of the city and its important cultural heritage are shown.
- Santa Caterina : remains of a Dominican monastery with a recently restored market (2005). A virtual tour shows the various stages of the construction of the monastery and enables you to explore the medieval city.
- Vil·la Joana : The house in Collserola Park shows the life of the Catalan poet Jacint Verdaguer , who spent his last days there.
- Parc Güell : In the gatehouse at the entrance to the park, the relationships between Antoní Gaudí , his patron Eusebi Güell and the urban development up to 1900 are shown.
- Turó de la Rovira : On the summit of the 262-meter-high Turó de la Rovira (English: Rovira Hill), an anti-aircraft military station was built during the Spanish Civil War , the remains of which can be viewed today. After the war, numerous poor migrants moved to the hill and built simple huts - one of the worst slums in Barcelona arose , which still existed until the end of the 1960s. From the summit plateau you have an impressive panoramic view over the city.
- Refugi 307: Large air raid shelter from the Spanish Civil War on Montjuïc .
- Casa de l'Aigua ('water house'): Former pump house of the water supply system for Montcada, built 1915–1917 by the city of Barcelona. Exhibition on the history of the city's water supply.
- MUHBA Oliva Artés
- MUHBA at Fabra & Coats
- Galeria de Catalans Il·lustres ('Gallery of Famous Catalans') in the Palau Requesens (seat of the Acadèmia de Bones Lletres de Barcelona ): Collection of 47 estates from important Catalan figures.
literature
- Julia Beltran de Heredia: The archaeological remains of Plaça del Rei in Barcelona: From Barcino to Barcinona (1st to 7th centuries). Museu d'Història, Barcelona 2002. ISBN 84-932113-4-6 .
- Dorothea Massmann: MARCO POLO travel guide Barcelona. MairDuMont, Ostfildern 2012, ISBN 3-829-72414-4 .
Web links
- Official website of the museum (Catalan, Spanish)