This converted 16th-century palace has a peaceful courtyard worth wandering through. Have a look upwards from the main staircase to admire the extraordinary timber artesonado, a sculpted ceiling made to seem like the upturned hull of a boat. Temporary exhibitions, usually related in some way to the archives, are often held here.
Next to the Plaça del Rei, the palau (palace) was built in the 1550s as the residence of the Spanish lloctinent (viceroy) of Catalonia and later converted into a convent. From 1853 it housed the Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragón, a unique archive with documents detailing the history of the Crown of Aragón and Catalonia, starting in the 12th century and reaching to the 20th.
