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Museu de Cera

No City's Complete without One

Inside the museum

Barcelona’s wax museum was the brainchild of the city executioner in the days of the Anarchists, Nicomedes Méndez, a quiet bachelor who lived with his pet rabbit. Noting the crowds that gathered to watch famous Anarchists meet the garrotte vil, Méndez had the idea of prolonging the thrill by displaying waxworks of its victims.

The city vetoed this, although it found nothing wrong with other cities’ famous criminals, and the museum was under way. Today it's all housed in a gorgeous pre-Modernista bank building of 1867, which is certainly as much an attraction as the silly waxworks. The original languid neoclassical statuary now shares the place with pirates, King Kong, and exhibits on the Climate Emergency.

The decorators are pretty clever, and you can get another look at their work for the price of a drink in the museum’s charming café, El Bosc de les Fades, with more waxworks and a ‘fairy grotto’ theme.

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Passatge de la Banca

Hours Mon—Fri 10am-7.30; Sat & Sun until 8pm

Adm €21 online, €23 at the door. includes entrance to the Columbus Monument

metro: Drassenes

museocerabcn.com

Video

+34 93 317 26 49

Museums & Galleries

The Ramblas

Text © Dana Facaros & Michael Pauls

Image by Diego Cavichiolli Carbone