You're now in the museum dedicated to sculptor and collector Frederic Marès Deulovol, who was born in 1893. He donated the extraordinary collection he had put together in his 98 years of life to the city, including sculptures and a large collection of objects that had commonly been used from ancient times up to the 1800s.
The building you are in, in Plaça de Sant Iu, is the old palace of the counts of Barcelona, where the museum was inaugurated in the middle of the last century. Crossing the tree-lined courtyard, your visit begins with 13 ground floor rooms that display painted busts and sculptures ranging from antiquity to the 1400s. I'd particularly like to point out the extraordinary Romanesque works in wood, and especially the series of crucifixes.
On the first floor you can admire the rest of the sculpture collection that goes from the 1500s to the 1800s.
The second floor is almost entirely taken up by a "museum in a museum", which is called the Collector's cabinet: it has a collection of tens of thousands of objects that testify to the lifestyles and customs of the past, and especially the 1800s. There is more than you could ever imagine: fans, watches, jewelry, photographs, toys, keys, bottles, reliquaries, glass, pottery... and everything is presented in an intimate atmosphere that evokes the private world of its owner. Eventually you'll reach Marès' library-studio, with some sculptures made by the master himself.
But don't miss the "amusements" hall on the third floor, considered such because of the extravagant objects it contains. And keep in mind that the museum even has an underground room with medieval sculptures in stone. Before returning to Plaça de Sant Iu, take some time to sit in the shade of the garden's plants and relax in the atmosphere of this magnificent courtyard.
FUN FACT: this palace was once the seat of the Holy Inquisition, the implacable religious court instituted by the devoted Catholic sovereigns Isabelle and Ferdinand: the same two that financed Christopher Columbus and drove the Jews from Spain.
Language: English