Romanesque art in Barcelona

The MNAC museum, built in 1929 was transformed into a museum in 1934. From then on the museum has contained a unique and exceptional - but little known - collection of medieval art. Behind the thick walls of the great palace built in Renaissance style, the so called National Palace, hides what can be described as the most beautiful collection of "primitive" mural in Europe. In other words, this fantastic museum in Barcelona for the mural, what Venice and Ravenna is for the mosaic art.

This incredible collection of frescoes comes from small Romanesque churches in the Pyrenees. During the first decades of the 20th century a huge interest in this medieval art grew up, and by an Italian technique the directors of the museum managed to remove the images (that were getting destroyed by moisture in the small churches ) and to bring them to Barcelona.

Originally, the images are probably not painted by local artists, but by itinerant artists who traveled throughout the Mediterranean. The paintings contain motifs and techniques that were developed in Byzantium, but which came to Catalonia thanks to itinerant artists, maybe from Sicily.