Palau de la Música Catalana (Music Palace) is one of the world’s most extraordinary music halls, with facades that are a riot of color and form.  The rich decoration of the façade of the Palau, which incorporates elements from many sources, including traditional Spanish and Arabic architecture, is successfully married with the building’s structure. The exposed red brick and iron, the mosaics, the stained glass, and the glazed tiles were chosen and situated to give a feeling of openness and transparency.

Palau de la Música Catalana - exterior

From its polychrome ceramic ticket windows to its overhead busts of Palestrina, Bach, Beethoven, and Wagner, the Palau is a flamboyant Barcelona landmark. Constructed between 1906 and 1909 by the Catalan architect Lluis Domènech i Montaner, this Modernista building was restored between 1983 and 1989 by the architect and designer Óscar Tusquets, and in 1997 it was designated a World Heritage Site.

The concert hall of the Palau, which seats about 2,200 people, is the only auditorium in Europe that is illuminated during daylight hours entirely by natural light. The walls on two sides consist primarily of stained-glass panes set in magnificent arches, and overhead is an enormous skylight of stained glass designed by Antoni Rigalt whose centerpiece is an inverted dome in shades of gold surrounded by blue that suggests the sun and the sky.

Palau de la Música Catalana - Concert Hall

The architectural decoration in the concert hall is a masterpiece of creativity and imagination, yet everything has been carefully considered for its utility in the presentation of music.

More panoramas of the Palau de la Música Catalana and Barcelona  can be found in Arounder Barcelona.