Another way to experience La Mercè: rediscover Barcelona

La Mercè is synonymous with traditional festivities, open-air concerts, and performances that fill the city’s streets and squares. But amid the rhythm of the music, the fire, and the traditional festive figures, the city’s main festival also offers an opportunity to (re)discover Barcelona’s heritage: to step inside places that are part of the urban landscape but that, throughout the year, we don’t always get the chance to visit.

Coinciding with the main day of the festival, several museums and heritage sites across Barcelona will open their doors for free on Thursday, September 24. From the Museu Picasso to MACBA, and from the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion to Palau Güell, this is the perfect opportunity to tick off those visits we always seem to postpone and finally step inside some of the city’s most iconic cultural spaces. But La Mercè can also be experienced beyond museums and heritage buildings: from the traditional festive figures on display at El Born to the festival poster, which this year leaves paper behind to become a 33 m² mural on the interior terrace of the Francesc Candel Library.