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Picasso Museum: the making of a painter

Picasso spent his teenage years in Barcelona, and this is the museum of how he learned to paint. Its strength is not the famous later work but the beginning: the academic studies of a boy of fourteen, the Blue Period, and the long series he painted on Las Meninas in old age.

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Tickets
From €37
Open
Tue to Sun, from 10:00
Closed
Mondays, 1 Jan, 1 May, 24 Jun, 25 Dec
Allow
1½ to 2 hours

Barcelona this week

    What to see at the Picasso Museum

    1. The early academic work

      Studies and large paintings of the teenage Picasso, among them First Communion and Science and Charity, painted for exhibitions when he was fifteen and sixteen.

    2. The Blue Period

      Paintings from the years around 1901 to 1904, when he moved between Barcelona and Paris and painted the poor in shades of blue.

    3. Las Meninas

      The series of 1957 in which he took apart Velázquez's painting over and over, in a room of its own, with the pigeons he painted from his window in the same months.

    4. The palaces

      The Gothic courtyards and stairways of the Carrer de Montcada, the street of the city's medieval merchants.

    Tickets and tours for the Picasso Museum

    • Sold by GetYourGuide

      Barcelona: Picasso Museum Skip-the-Line Guided Tour

      A guided tour of the Museu Picasso, with entry without queueing for a ticket.

      Included

      • A guided tour of the Picasso Museum
      • Entry without queueing for a ticket

      From

      €37

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    Visiting the Picasso Museum: hours and admission

    Opening hours

    Tuesday to Sunday
    10:00 to 19:00
    • Closed on Mondays, and on 1 January, 1 May, 24 June and 25 December.
    • In spring and summer the museum has opened from 9:00, and later on Thursday to Saturday. Its own pages disagree on the hours of each season: check its site before you go.

    Who gets in free

    • Everyone, on the first Sunday of each month and on Thursdays from 16:00 to 19:00, with a free ticket booked ahead.
    • On its open days, among them 12 February, International Museum Day in May and 24 September.

    Getting there

    Metro
    Jaume I (line 4), four minutes away.
    On foot
    Five minutes from Santa Maria del Mar and ten from the Cathedral.
    By car
    Barcelona is a low-emission zone, and parking in the centre is scarce and dear. Leave the car and use the metro.

    Address

    Museu Picasso
    Carrer de Montcada 15
    08003 Barcelona, Spain

    Entrances

    The entrance is on the Carrer de Montcada, in the old palaces of the street.

    On the map

    Before you go

    • Book a time slot ahead: the queue on the Carrer de Montcada can be long.
    • The museum is free at set times, such as the first Sunday of the month and Thursday afternoons, but these too must be booked.
    • It is closed on Mondays.
    • Do not expect the cubist masterpieces: the museum is about the young Picasso and his Las Meninas.

    The museum of a painter's youth

    Pablo Picasso came to Barcelona with his family in 1895, at thirteen, when his father took a teaching post at the city's school of fine arts. He studied there, showed his first paintings and made his friends among the artists of the café Els Quatre Gats before leaving for Paris.

    The museum opened in 1963 in a palace on the Carrer de Montcada, with the collection of his friend and secretary Jaume Sabartés. Picasso himself gave many works in 1968 and 1970, among them the fifty-eight paintings of his Las Meninas series.

    It now fills five medieval and Renaissance palaces of the street, joined by their courtyards.

    Picasso Museum: common questions

    What are the opening hours of the Picasso Museum?
    Tuesday to Sunday: 10:00 to 19:00. Closed on Mondays, and on 1 January, 1 May, 24 June and 25 December. In spring and summer the museum has opened from 9:00, and later on Thursday to Saturday. Its own pages disagree on the hours of each season: check its site before you go.
    Is the Picasso Museum ever free?
    Everyone, on the first Sunday of each month and on Thursdays from 16:00 to 19:00, with a free ticket booked ahead. On its open days, among them 12 February, International Museum Day in May and 24 September.
    What does the ticket include?
    A guided tour of the Picasso Museum. Entry without queueing for a ticket. It is sold by GetYourGuide.
    What is in the Picasso Museum in Barcelona?
    Above all the young Picasso: his studies and academic paintings as a teenager, the Blue Period, and his series of 1957 on Velázquez's Las Meninas. There are few works from his cubist years.
    Is the Picasso Museum free?
    At set times, such as the first Sunday of each month and Thursday afternoons, with a free ticket booked ahead. The museum's own site gives the hours.
    How long does the Picasso Museum take?
    About an hour and a half to two hours.

    What visitors say about the Picasso Museum

    Rating from Google

    4.4

    40,620 ratings on Google

    Google's figures as read on 25 October 2026.

    Read every review on Google

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