One of the world’s most extraordinary music halls, with facades that are a riot of color and form, the Palau de la Música (Music Palace) is a Barcelona landmark. From its polychrome ceramic ticket windows on the Carrer de Sant Pere Més Alt side to its overhead busts of Palestrina, Bach, Beethoven, and Wagner, the Palau is a flamboyant tour de force. Designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner in 1908, it is today considered the flagship of Barcelona’s Moderniste architecture.
The concert hall of the Palau, which seats about 2,200 people, is the only auditorium in Europe that is illuminated during daylight hours entirely by natural light. The walls on two sides consist primarily of stained-glass panes set in magnificent arches, and overhead is an enormous skylight of stained glass designed by Antoni Rigalt whose centerpiece is an inverted dome in shades of gold surrounded by blue that suggests the sun and the sky.
The architectural decoration in the concert hall is a masterpiece of creativity and imagination, yet everything has been carefully considered for its utility in the presentation of music. The hall is not a theater, because the massive sculptures flanking the stage make the use of scenery nearly impossible. Likewise, even though a noble pipe organ graces the apse-like area above and behind the stage, the hall is not a church. If it is religious at all, it can only be described as pagan.
