Barcelona, Spain: Unusual Museums
Museu de la Xocolata, Museu del Perfum, Museu de l'Erotica & More
From perfume and chocolate to footwear and funeral carriages, the subjects of Barcelona's more unusual museums reveal the chic city's love for the eccentric.
In a city rife with Picasso, Miró and Gaudí , it’s no wonder that smaller, more offbeat museums often fall by the wayside for Barcelona visitors. But to pass them by is to miss out on the stylish city’s kookier side, where a musty room full of historic perfume bottles hides behind a boutique perfumeria on fashionable Passeig de Gràcia—and a museum wholly devoted to chocolate sits across the street from an über-hip art gallery in the trendy Born district. Here are some of the quirky museums Barcelona has to offer.
Museu de la Xocolata (Calle Commerç 36): In a modern setting of high ceilings and hardwood floors, this museum dishes information on the origins, history and significance of chocolate, via displays in four languages and more interesting audio-visual and interactive components. But the real highlight of the Chocolate Museum—besides the sweets shop near the entrance—is its collection of mones, exquisite chocolate sculptures of everything from Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia to Bambi and Louis Armstrong. (When you’re ready for something edgier, check out the Iguapop gallery across the street, at No. 15.)
Museu del Perfum (Passeig de Gràcia 39): Walk through the Regia Perfumeria and find this lavish little trove of some 5,000 perfume bottles, vases, jars, flasks and other such fragrant vessels, crowded behind a locked door (an attendant will let you in). It’s odd that the Perfume Museum's bottles haven’t scented the compact room, but the collection, which spans centuries, cultures and continents, is more visual than anything else, and many are quite beautiful. Half of the display is chronological; the rest are exhibited by brand name, including an outlandish flask designed by Salvador Dali for Schiaparelli in 1945.
Museu de Carrosses Funebres (Calle Sancho de Avila 2; 93-484-1710): Definitely the oddest—and most morbid—of the bunch, the free-of-charge Museum of Funeral Carriages is located in a nondescript office building, solely designated by “Serveis Funeraris” (Funeral Services). In the lobby, ask the receptionist about the museum; eventually, a guard will arrive to escort you there. Four flights of stairs and two locked doors later, you’ll enter a stuffy cement basement filled with old hearses and ceremonial carriages dating from the 18th century, plus a handful of engraved tombstones and shiny automobiles. Most of the collection is eerily enlivened by creepy mannequin attendants and fake horses, adorned with ornate gold saddles.
Museu de l’Erotica (La Rambla 96): If you grow weary of crowded Las Ramblas, Barcelona’s main tourist drag, duck into the Erotic Museum—minus the kids—for a change of pace. Despite the museum’s lofty philosophy of being “a center of didactic information” at which visitors can “contemplate the development of eroticism”, it’s impossible not to giggle as you wander through displays of S&M equipment and mannequins, a seven-foot-tall phallus (ok, it’s also a Thai amulet) and a (nonworking) gadget called “the Pleasure Chair.” More artistically appreciated are the Japanese drawings, 1930s-era Barcelona brothel photos and 18th-century Kama Sutra wooden carvings from India.
Museu del Calçat (Plaça Sant Felip Neri 5; 93-301-4533): Appropriately enough for the hometown of Camper, the tiny Shoe Museum in the heart of the medieval Barri Gòtic is dedicated to footwear, and is one of just three of its kind in the world. Operated by the shoemakers’ guild, it illustrates the craft with traditional tools, machinery and, of course, shoes—everything from Roman sandals and Arabic slippers to clown shoes and celebrity-worn footwear. It’s inspiration enough to continue your own hunt for the perfect pair before returning home.
