MNAC, as it is known, is housed in the Palau Nacional and is the largest museum on the hill of Montjuic. The Palau Nacional was the centrepiece of Barcelona´s 1929 Universal Exhibition and this huge neoclassical building looks down over Plaza España, giving wonderful views of Barcelona and the mountain of Tibidabo beyond.

The principal collection in the museum and that for which it is most renowned is of Romanesque Catalan religious works, many of which are frescoes saved from tiny churches where they would have fallen into ruin. Works then move on chronologically to Gothic pieces, including some exceptional altarpieces, and the Renaissance and Baroque masters (El Greco, Velazquez, Cranach, Rubens) up to the 20th century. Turn of the century and 20th century pieces tend to be examples of Catalan artists, with a focus on Modernism, noucentisme and contemporary art in a variety of media.

The museum is also host to some excellent temporary exhibitions, in the past having displayed ´Masters from the Metropolitan Museum of Art´, ´Toulouse-Lautrec and the Modern Poster´ and ´Caravaggio´ amongst many others. In October 2007 it will be visited by an exhibition of Yves Tanguey, one of the most significant names of the Surrealist Movement, whose works will here be displayed together for the first time in Spain.