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Architectural
Museum
El Poble Espanyol was built in 1929 for the Barcelona International Exhibition as the pavilion dedicated to art. It is one of the few monuments that belonged to an International Exhibition that can still be visited.
From the beginning, it was conceived as a real "village" in the middle of a city, with a surface area of 49,000 m2. The aim was to give an idea of what might be an "ideal model" of a Spanish village containing the main characteristics of all towns and villages in the peninsula. For this reason, 117 buildings, streets and squares were reproduced to scale. Pieces were selected taking into account criteria of aesthetic fit that could help create a harmonious overall composition in accordance with the "village" design that had been conceived.
The idea was championed by the architect Puig i Cadafalch and then designed as a whole unit by the architects Francesc Folguera and Ramon Reventós, with the participation of the art critic Miquel Utrillo and the painter Xavier Nogués. It was built in thirteen months and, strangely, the work had an expiry date, as it was supposed to last the same time as the Universal Exhibition – six months. Its success in planning terms, however, has allowed this open-air museum to remain alive until our time.
