cinalia

Barcelona · Sant Pere

Palau de la Música Catalana

A modernisme concert hall with a stained-glass skylight that hangs into the room like a drop of sun

Concert hall Barcelona, Sant Pere€€€€

The inverted glass dome above the stalls, amber and blue, lit by daylight

Lluís Domènech i Montaner built this for a choral society between 1905 and 1908 and made it the only concert hall in Europe lit entirely by natural light during the day. The walls are glass, the columns are mosaic, the proscenium erupts with sculpture and a stained-glass sun hangs down through the ceiling into the room.

It is a UNESCO site, it is entirely impractical acoustically compared with a shoebox hall, and it is one of the most extraordinary interiors on this website.

The detail

Good to know

Built
1905 to 1908, Domènech i Montaner
UNESCO
World Heritage Site
Light
Only European hall lit entirely by daylight
Seats
About 2 200