Catalonian Music Palace

It is a representative work of the cultural feeling and thinking of Catalonia and one of the main music halls worldwide. It was inaugurated in 1908. Domènech´ s architecture is of great quality and originality. Outside, sculptural elements that refer to music world are mixed with architectural and decorative elements in Modernist and Baroque styles. The façade is built in exposed red brick and is decorated with mosaics of Lluís Brú, highlighting a sculptural group paying tribute to the Popular Song and carried out by the sculptor Miquel Blay.

Inside, the architect mixed several materials of construction with ceramics (the “trencadis” typical of the Catalonian Modernism) and glass. The proscenium arch of the stage is framed by spectacular sculptural decorations, allegories to both the learned music and popular music. It seems to be a unique continuous sculpture in which we should highlight groups such as “Las Walkirias” (that refers to the adoration of the Catalan people to Richard Wagner) or the great stained glass skylight by Rigalt I Granell.

The room and the stage create a harmonic group, in which one integrates with the other one. The stage is dominated on its back by the tubes of the organ that become a decorative element and icon of the palace at the same time. It is the head office of the Orfeó Català, a prestigious Catalonian institution that from its foundation has had a relevant role in the defence for the values of the Catalonian culture.