The museum takes visitors though the history of Catalonia beginning in prehistoric times, with displays of flints and other tools used in hunting.

From the Neolithic era, the museum follows Catalonia’s history when it started to trade with other areas thanks to the arrival of the Phoenicians on the Costa Brava at Empuries. Since I know that part of Catalonia well, it was very interesting to see, although I’ve also been to the museum at Empuries itself.

After the Phoenicians came the Romans, who formed the basis of modern Spanish culture and introduced their language, law and religion to Spain. They arrived in 218 BC and lasted until the end of the 5th century when the Visigoths took over, the Muslim conquest of Iberia and the independence of the Catalan Counts, which formed the basis of Catalonia as a nation state, and the problems that have endured to the modern day.

Highlights included the suit of armour left in a pile to try on. I put on just the arm pieces and it wasn’t so much a question of weight, but of flecibility, or rather complete lack of. While the arms are jointed at the elbows, the amount of articulation is extremely limited and I have no idea how knights were able to fight at all.

Overall the museum is interesting… However, the last displays in the museum are weird. While it is interesting to see what Barcelona was like during the 20th Century – a time when it endured the Spanish Civil War, Franco’s post-war oppression and finally the restoration of democracy – and how people lived at various times, I’m not sure why so many current Catalan politicians were represented in the final section other than the Museum is funded by the Generalitat.