Around 100,000 enjoy Night of Museums in Barcelona

Around 100,000 people enjoyed free activities in Barcelona and the surrounding area on Saturday as part of the Night of Museums cultural initiative.

New spaces were added this year, such as Antoni Gaudí's Casa Batlló, one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city., which sold out all of its tickets. 

Locals took advantage of the special occasion to visit an iconic site that normally only tourists visit, as entrance was free, despite the normal price costing €29 for a basic ticket, although residents of Spain have 2x1 offers available.

Speaking outside the Gaudí site, the director of Heritage at the Barcelona Institute of Culture, Jaume Muñoz, highlighted the “success” of Casa Batlló being added to the Night of Museums offering.

Eva Sardó, a resident of Sant Andreu, was one of the lucky 100 to get a ticket to the Gaudí building, and she told the Catalan News Agency of her delight to visit for free.

“We find it hard to get out the house because things are very expensive, so it's great to take advantage of everything being open free,” Eva said. For this reason, she says she would like to see free access repeated other times during the year for Barcelona residents.

Night of Museums

From 7 pm until 1 am on Saturday evening into Sunday morning, around 100 cultural spaces in Barcelona were open free of charge, while 94 activities, such as guided tours, concerts, or carvings, were also held.

“It's a night to rediscover spaces that we already know or to go and see them for the first time”, said Jaume Muñoz, highlighting “the variety of heritage” of Barcelona and the surrounding municipalities.

This year’s edition includes various new spaces participating for the first time, such as Casa Batlló, Casa de la Barceloneta 1791, Espai Moja, Fundació Úniques, Hospital de St Saver, Museu de Ciències Naturales de Barcelona-L’Hivernacle, and the Mathematics Museum of Catalonia.

In addition, some spaces that didn't take part in 2024 but have returned to the lineup are the Museu de les Aigües, Palau Mercader, the Historiy of Immigration in Catalonia Museum, and the KBr Foundation MAPFRE photography centre.