CaixaForum Barcelona

The sister museum to Madrid’s popular CaixaForum cultural center, CaixaForum Barcelona was inaugurated in 2002 and has since made a name for itself as one of the city’s premium modern art galleries. With a permanent exhibition that features over 700 thematically displayed works, it’s one of the biggest modern art collections in Spain, including works by Salvador Dalí, William Turner, William Hogarth, Joseph Beuys and Sol Lewitt. Along with its 5 exhibition rooms, the center also houses a 350-seat auditorium, a children’s art workshop and a café-restaurant, and hosts a number of temporary exhibitions, art workshops, film showings and concerts.

Even the building itself is impressive, a former factory building designed by Puig I Cadafalch in 1910, which stands opposite the stylish Mies van der Rohe pavilion. Resembling a modernist castle with its intricate crenellated brickwork, the dramatic building now features a striking metal and glass canopy frontage by Japanese architect Arata Isozaki.