Palau Nacional

The Palau Nacional (Catalan for ‘National Palace’) was the main site of the 1929 International Exhibition on the hill of Montjuïc in Barcelona. It was designed by Eugenio Cendoya and Enric Catà under the supervision of Pere Domènech i Roura. Since 1934 it has been home to the National Art Museum of Catalonia.

With a ground surface of 32,000 m², the Spanish Renaissance-inspired building has a rectangular floor plan flanked by two side and one rear square sections, with an elliptical dome in the centre. The fountains by the staircases leading to the palace are the work of Carles Buïgas.

Between 1996 and 2004, the palace was extended to accommodate the National Art Museum's entire collection of over 5,000 artworks.

Ahead of the 1929 International Exhibition, Barcelona had already commenced urbanizing parts of Montjuïc. From the second half of the 19th century, projects were presented regarding the installation of public facilities in the area. Up until this time, Montjuïc had only been used for its resources: pockets of private properties and numerous quarries. The lack of roadways made it area difficult to access, however.

A project by Ildefons Cerdà and another by Josep Amargós in 1894 proposed to convert the mountain into a residential area. A similar later plan was Léon Jaussely's 1905 Pla d'Enllaços. Another idea for the celebration of the exhibition in Montjuïc was proposed in 1909 when Manuel Vega i March suggested that the culminating point of the development should be ‘a great Temple of Art, a summary and compendium of our most prodigious knowledge’. Finally, in 1913, it was decided that Montjuïc would be the definite location for the Exhibition of Electric Industries (Exposició d’Indústries Electriques), promoted by the industry and the city council of Barcelona.

The initial plan proposed by architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch in 1915 was basic in design, depicting a large central avenue crowned by a rectangular palace with a great dome, the top of which had a statue of a winged Victory surrounded by eight towers. In 1920, the same architect designed a detailed project named Palau d'Art Antic (Palace of Ancient Art), which later became known as Palau dels Nacions (Palace of the Nations). In order to construct the dome, a system was conceived to include a combination of a concrete and geodesic dome structure. The construction of this design began in 1923. However, in September of the same year, the arrival general Miguel Primo de Rivera to power brought on the dismissal of Puig i Cadafalch from his position as president of the Commonwealth of Catalonia and his subsequent distancing from the Exhibition project.

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