Landmark

Monastery of Pedralbes

Barcelona, Spain

Candidate image for Monastery of Pedralbes in Barcelona

The Monastery of Pedralbes was founded by Queen Elisenda de Montcada as a community for Poor Clare nuns. Its broad Gothic cloister and carefully ordered rooms preserve the daily architecture of monastic life, while the queen’s tomb embodies her unusual position between royal authority and religious retirement.

Guide preview

The three-storey cloister at Pedralbes organizes the monastery around a quiet open centre. Queen Elisenda de Montcada founded the complex for the Poor Clare community in 1326, with the support of her husband, King James II.

Continue exploring

Discover the full story

Keep reading with a travel pass and explore every full guide and tour.

Upgrade

Quick facts

  • Queen Elisenda founded the monastery in 1326.
  • The community belonged to the Poor Clare order.
  • Elisenda lived at Pedralbes from 1328 until her death in 1364.

More places in Barcelona

landmark

Barcelona, SpainGuide with pass

Arc de Triomf

Barcelona’s Arc de Triomf was built as the ceremonial entrance to the 1888 Universal Exhibition, not as a victory monument. Its red brick and sculpted friezes combine a classical arch shape with a distinctly local architectural style and a message of welcome.

aquarium

Barcelona, SpainGuide with pass

Barcelona Aquarium

The Barcelona Aquarium’s Oceanarium puts visitors beneath a large Mediterranean tank, with an underwater tunnel running through it. The experience is built around a change in viewpoint: instead of looking down at marine life from above, you move through the water’s volume as fish pass overhead and a

church

Barcelona, SpainGuide with pass

Barcelona Cathedral

Barcelona Cathedral’s Gothic structure was built over earlier Christian places of worship, and its present façade was completed centuries after the medieval church began. The result is a layered monument where the building’s age and the date of its most visible front do not match.

museum

Barcelona, SpainGuide with pass

Barcelona History Museum

Barcelona History Museum at Plaça del Rei places visitors above the remains of Roman Barcino, where streets, workshops, and public buildings reveal the city’s early grid. The museum also occupies later medieval structures, making the site itself a layered exhibit of urban continuity and change.

museum

Barcelona, SpainGuide with pass

Barcelona Maritime Museum

Barcelona Maritime Museum occupies the Royal Shipyards, where galleys and other vessels were built and maintained for Mediterranean power. The broad Gothic halls are industrial spaces on a monumental scale, preserving the structure of a medieval naval arsenal while giving it a new museum role.

architecture

Barcelona, SpainGuide with pass

Barcelona Pavilion

The Barcelona Pavilion was built as Germany’s contribution to the 1929 International Exposition and dismantled soon afterward. Its 1986 reconstruction makes a temporary building permanently available for experiencing modern architecture’s use of material and space.