The Museu Marítim de Barcelona is located in the building of the royal shipyards, on the city's waterfront and at the foot of the Montjuïc mountain. The shipyards were built to serve as a military dockyard for the galleys commanded by the Crown of Aragon.

With a history stretching back more than 700 years, the complex is a zone about which little is yet known from a historical perspective. However, given the research projects that are currently underway and the archaeological excavations due to take place in the near future, we will soon have a greater knowledge of the complex and its significance.

The collections of the Museu Marítim de Barcelona comprise tangible testimonies to a long-standing cultural tradition linked to the sea and which have survived throughout our history. The museum’s collections have been built up over the course of the institution’s existence, a period that began in 1929 with the establishment of a small museum that was part of the Institut Nàutic de la Mediterrània (Mediterranean Nautical Institute). The collections have grown as a result of the acquisitions made by the museum and thanks to the generosity of the many organisations and people who have made donations to the institution.

The model ships that make up the museum’s main collection can be divided into different classes, namely shipyard models, half-hull models, models from nautical schools, ex-voto models, models corresponding to shipping companies from the 19th and 20th centuries, and others built in the museum’s own modelling workshops. Made on the same premises on which the ships themselves were built, shipyard models are prototypes, i.e. reduced-scale study projects undertaken prior to the full-scale construction of the corresponding vessel. The accuracy of their design and the painstaking way in which they were produced give such models intrinsic historical and documentary value that elevates them to the status of authentic works of art.

The Museum is open from 10 am until 8 pm everyday of the week, but if you go on Sundays after 3pm the museum is free! Allow us to help you find an apartment close to the museum and Barceloneta!