Barcelona

The National Palace (Palau Nacional) in Barcelona was built between 1926 and 1929 for the 1929 Universal Exposition. It served as the main entrance to the exhibition and the Montjuïc Park. It was inaugurated by King Alfonso XIII and his wife, Victoria Eugenia. Today, it houses the National Museum of Catalan Art short for MNAC, which is widely regarded as one the most important museums in Spain and it is often called "The Prado of Romanesque art" because it is holding Europe's best collection of Romanesque frescoes.

Thanks to its elevated location relative to the city, the palace is well visible from many different parts of Barcelona.

The National Palace was designed by Eugenio Cendoya and Enric Catà under the supervision of Pere Domènech i Roura.

The Four Columns are four Ionic columns originally created by Josep Puig i Cadafalch. They were erected in 1919 and symbolized the four stripes of the Catalan's flag, and they were intended to become one of the main icons of Catalanism. They were demolished in 1928 during Primo de Rivera's dictatorship as all public Catalanist symbols were systematically removed in order to avoid their being noticed during the 1929 Universal Exposition.

A replica of the columns was erected in 2010 very close to the original site and following Puig i Cadafalch's original plans.

Walking up stairs leading to the National Palace. The stairs were quite steep and Hoa keep complaining... Do we really need to walk up? The answer is YES!

Once we were up there it was worth all the effort.

Lots of people are sitting on the steps of the MNAC and enjoying a view of the city.

Here we are just walking around the area and enjoying the architecture of the building.

At night time the lights are turned on and they also turned on the fountain. It is a really impressive sight.

Below the palace, there is the Magic Fountain created by the engineer Carles Buigas and the first show is at 9:00PM so we are now going down to take a look.

The famous Magic Fountain was constructed in 1929 and it is free to the public. It is a how with music, colored lights and huge amount of water making it an artistic and coordinated splash in the evening and it is also help that a backdrop view of the MNAC.

The show last about 20 minutes. We did not have much expectation but the show turned out to be impressive and really entertaining.

After the show we went back to Las Arenas, went up to the rooftop for a digestif for Hoa and Minh and coffee and dessert for me and Loan at Cinco Jotas.

It is getting late so we are walking back to our hotel and on our way we saw a sharpei. I asked the owner if I could take a picture of his dog.