Barcelona’s most visited museum occupies five of the many fine medieval stone mansions. A visit starts with sketches, oils and doodling from Picasso’s earliest years in Málaga and La Coruña – most of it done between 1893 and 1895. Some of his self-portraits, and the portraits of his father, which date from 1896, are evidence enough of his precocious talent. The enormous Ciència i Caritat or “Science and Charity” is proof to anyone that, had he wanted, Picasso would have made a fine conventional artist. His first consciously thematic adventure, the Blue Period, is well covered. The later works include Las Meninas, done in Cannes in 1957, a complex technical series of studies on Velázquez’ masterpiece (the Velazquez one of the same name hang in Madrid at the Prado). Furthermore, the Picasso Museum, opened in 1963, also reveals the artists´ deep relationship with Barcelona: an intimate, solid relationship that was shaped in his adolescence and youth and continued until his death. Set on a plain rising gently from the sea to a range of wooded hills, Barcelona is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in Spain and one of the Mediterranean's busiest ports. Restaurants, bars and clubs are always packed, as is the seaside in summer. You might get the impression it's dedicated exclusively to hedonism, but it's a hard-working, dynamic place hoping to place itself in the vanguard of 21st-century Europe with a heavy concentration of hi-tech and biomedical business. It regards its long past with pride: from Roman town it passed to medieval trade juggernaut, and its old centre constitutes one of the greatest concentrations of Gothic architecture in Europe. Beyond this core are some of the world's more bizarre buildings: surreal spectacles capped by Antoni Gaudi’s architecture. Barcelona has been breaking ground in art, architecture and style since the late 19th century. We invite you to come and discover its wonderful secrets!