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Dominating the northern flank if Monfjuic, this imposing neoclassical
palace contains a treasure trove if Catalan art spanning several
centuries. The National Museum of Catalan Art is one of the best
museums of medieval art in the world. Housed In an extravagant National
Exhibition building, built as the symbol of the 1929 World Exhibition,
the museum is currently undergoing renovation by architect Gae Aulenti,
who also converted the Gare d'Orsay into one of Paris's foremost
museums.
The MNAC boasts the world's most eminent Romanesque art collection,
with stone sculptures, wood carvings, gold and silverwork, altar
cloths, enamels and coins and a beautifully presented series of
11th- and 12th-century murals, carefully stripped from church walls
throughout Catalonia and precisely reconstructed in apses, as if
they were still in their original locations.
The idea for this collection originated in the early 20th century
when the theft of national architectural treasures in Catalonia
was at its height, necessitating a church-led crusade to move some
of the region's most precious treasures to a safe location.
The museum's Gothic collection forms a striking contrast with over
400 highly ornate retables and sculptures, including an extraordinary
15th-century Virgin' in full flamenco dress. A somewhat frag-mented
collection of Renaissance and baroque paintings embraces works by
Tintoretto, El Greco and Zurbaran. The museum also contains the
Museum of Drawings and Prints, the Numismatic Museum of Catalonia,
and will eventually house the General Library of Art History and
the Museu d'Art Modern (_54), which is currently located in the
Ciutadella Park.
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