Archaeology Museum of Catalonia

The Archaeology Museum of Catalonia (Museu d'Arqueologia de Catalunya, or MAC) is the principal archaeological institution of Catalonia, Spain, with its head office in Barcelona. Founded in 1932 by the Republican Government of Catalonia and reconstituted under the Museums of Catalonia Act in 1990, the museum operates five venues across the region. It holds the most important archaeological collection in Catalonia, concentrating on prehistory and ancient history. The museum's headquarters occupies the former Palace of Graphic Arts on Montjuïc hill, a building originally constructed for the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition.

The museum traces its origins to 1932, when the Republican Government of Catalonia established the institution. The modern legal framework came with the Museums of Catalonia Act in 1990, passed by the Ministry of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya, which created the current institutional structure. The head office building itself has a separate history: the Palace of Graphic Arts was built for the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition and was slated for dismantlement afterward. Architect Josep Gudiol led its conservation and refitting, allowing the museum to open there in 1932. The network expanded through the 1990s: MAC Girona joined in 1992, the Submarine Archaeology Centre of Catalonia (CASC) in Girona became part of the institution in 1996, and the monuments of Olèrdola were incorporated in 1995.

The museum's collections span from prehistory through the early medieval period, organized across five chronological fields: prehistory, protohistory, Greek and Phoenician colonization, the Roman Empire, and the Visigothic period that initiates the medieval era. The holdings encompass materials from excavated sites throughout Catalonia, including urban settlements, fortifications, and underwater archaeological zones. The institution maintains an active research and conservation program, particularly through CASC, which inventories, protects, conserves, and studies underwater heritage sites across the region and supports external archaeological teams.

Among the signature objects at the Barcelona venue are the Greek statue of Asclepius from the 3rd century BCE, discovered at Empúries; the Iberian Treasure of Tivissa; and the votive crown from the Treasure of Torredonjimeno. The Empúries site itself, where 25 percent has been excavated since archaeological work began in 1908, yields continuous evidence of occupation from the 9th century BCE through the Roman period. At Ullastret, the largest Iberian settlement yet found in Catalonia, excavations ongoing since 1948 have revealed walled structures and cobbled streets. Olèrdola presents a stratified sequence from an 8th century BCE Iron Age fortified nucleus through Iberian, Roman, and medieval phases including rock-cut tombs and Romanesque churches.

The Barcelona headquarters, officially the Museu d'Arqueologia de Barcelona i Institut de Prehistòria i Arqueologia, was designed by Pelagi Martínez i Patricio and covers 4,000 square meters. The building's five chronological exhibition spaces correspond to the museum's temporal scope. The Girona venue occupies the Benedictine monastery of Sant Pere de Galligants, where it has been housed since 1857 after several relocations. The outdoor sites at Empúries, Ullastret, and Olèrdola preserve archaeological remains in situ, with Empúries offering both exposed ruins and an on-site museum for recovered artifacts. The CASC in Girona operates as a specialized center for underwater archaeology.

The Archaeology Museum of Catalonia is a public institution owned by the Generalitat de Catalunya, accessible through its website at www.mac.cat. The five venues are distributed across Catalonia: the Barcelona head office on Montjuïc; MAC Girona in the monastery of Sant Pere de Galligants; the Greco-Roman city of Empúries near Sant Martí d'Empúries; the Iberian settlement of Ullastret in Baix Empordà with its monographic museum; and the monuments of Olèrdola, opened to the public in November 1971. The Submarine Archaeology Centre of Catalonia (CASC) in Girona, created in 1992, functions as both a research facility and part of the museum's broader educational and protective mission.