Barcelona's museums are preparing a full and varied programme of new exhibitions, concerts, cinema, guided tours, and family activities across the city this summer, according to the Barcelona City Council. These cultural institutions will again become spaces for discovery, creation, and cultural experiences for all audiences.

Many new exhibitions will open throughout the summer months, covering a wide range of themes.

New Exhibitions Across the City

The Barcelona Photographic Archive will open “Barcelona and the Sky: Balloons, Aeroplanes and Photography” in June. This exhibition offers an aerial perspective of the city, tracing the early days when balloons, airships, and aeroplanes made flight a fascinating spectacle. Also in June, the Biblioteca Pública Arús will launch “The Printed Sky: Astronomy in the Arús Library's Heritage Collection”. The opening on 18 June will include a lecture by Dr Gerard Gómez Muntané on “J. L. Lagrange, an Enlightenment Scientist”.

To mark the UIA 2026 World Congress of Architects, held in Barcelona from 28 June to 2 July, the Design Museum, DHub, will host an exhibition of UIA Member Sections. This free, public space will allow each participating country to present a selection of its contemporary architecture.

La Virreina Centre de la Imatge will open two new exhibitions on 7 July: “Frederic Amat: Eight” and “Juana Dolores Romero Casanova”. The first explores the influence of poets, writers, playwrights, and philosophers on Amat's artistic development. The second sees Juana Dolores trace the historical and theoretical concept of love in revolutionary tradition, linking her class resentment and hatred with her sentimental resentment and hatred.

From 25 June to 13 September, the Museum of the History of Catalonia will host “The Catalan Roma People: History and Culture”. This exhibition seeks to recognise, value, and make visible the history of the Roma people in an open, diverse, and real way.

Montjuïc Castle will also be active this summer. In addition to two exhibitions launched in early June, “La Seat: Factory of Transformations” and “Living, Coexisting and Surviving: International Brigades and Multilingualism”, the castle will organise guided tours, scavenger hunts for children aged 6 to 12, and, in September, an itinerary through the castle and Refuge 307. This tour, titled “Repression, Attack and Defence: From the Montjuïc Process to the Civil War (1895-1939)”, will look at key historical events. The new Montjuïc Castle Interpretation Centre features a seven-room tour explaining the castle's evolution and its connection to Montjuïc. The new narrative contextualises the site's role in the city's history through key figures, episodes, and moments, from the repression of 19th-century anarchist movements to the castle's recovery as a public facility.

“Feminist Films: 1976, 2026” is the title of an exhibition opening at the Filmoteca de Catalunya on 9 July. Related activities throughout the summer will include a workshop on creating feminist posters. In September, the Frederic Marès Museum will inaugurate “Many Mercès”, an exhibition of posters created over the years for the La Mercè festivals.

Music and Cinema Offerings

This summer will see a new edition of “Òh!pera”, a series of newly created micro-operas. Directed by Àlex Ollé, the project brings together Barcelona composers, librettists, stage directors, and design students to develop interdisciplinary proposals linked to contemporary lyrical genres. There will be four nights of performances at the Fabra i Coats Venue and Espai Bota, produced by the Department of Culture and Creative Industries of Barcelona City Council, through Disseny Hub Barcelona and the Gran Teatre del Liceu.

The “Musical Evenings at the Monastery” concerts will also return this summer, with three performances of medieval, Renaissance, and contemporary music. This year marks the 700th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Monastery of Santa Maria de Pedralbes. Another regular musical event is “Summer Nights at the Museum of the History of Catalonia”. This year's programme aims to connect history with contemporary music through local musical talent, featuring four concerts on Wednesday nights in July.

Music will also be present at Santa Mònica. On 3 July, the Ars Movens instrumentalists will perform in the exhibition “The Assault of Illusion”, inviting a journey where nothing is as it seems. In September, several activities will be offered as part of the “Building Sound: Luthiery, Materials and Critical Perspectives” programme.

As part of the fourth edition of the “Music at the Miró” series and in collaboration with the Grec Festival of Barcelona, the terraces of the Fundació Joan Miró will host AMORE on 4 July, one of the most unique proposals from the new experimental pop scene.

The Museum of Music will host “Desvarío Flamenco” on 15 July, featuring a lecture by Eloy Martin Corrales and Montse Madridejos, and a concert with guitars by José María Gallardo and Miguel Angel Cortés.

Organised by MACBA, “Heavy-Metal” will take place on 16 and 17 July at La Model. Experimental violinist ASIA invites a revisit to a key, though almost forgotten, episode in understanding the link between artistic and political avant-gardes in Catalonia. This is a tribute to the enigmatic musical action conceived by Carles Santos and Pere Portabella during their clandestine imprisonment at La Model, an act of defiance against the dictatorship.

Another summer option in the museum spaces will be cinema. The Mies van der Rohe Pavilion will present three dates from its “Pavilion Screen” series. “City Symphonies” is a collection of short films about Barcelona and other metropolitan cities, commissioned from various filmmakers, offering diverse and personal portraits. Each summer, the CCCB screens five new pieces from this initiative in its Hall.

Women and Night Tours at Barcelona History Museum

The multiple venues of the Museum of the History of Barcelona (MUHBA) offer dozens of proposals for the summer months. A classic is “Born de nit”, a series of itineraries, guided tours, and workshops that open the doors to the history of 18th-century Barcelona after dark. Also notable are activities related to the temporary exhibition “Women Will Come” at Plaça del Rei, which includes tours and itineraries that place women, their roles, and contributions at the centre of history. MUHBA will also join the “Museums Pride” campaign with two author-led itineraries that will explore and celebrate the traces and history of the LGBTQI+ community in the city.

Following the recent inauguration of Fabra i Coats, the museum's new space dedicated to the history and memory of work in contemporary Barcelona, two guided tours will be held every Sunday this summer, except in August. The Casa de l'Aigua, which recently opened two permanent exhibitions, will offer guided tours every Saturday, except in August.

Activities for Children

As usual, many of the proposals from Barcelona's museums this summer will be aimed at children, who enjoy long school holidays. These activities are designed to engage younger audiences with culture and history during their break.