41°22′32″N 2°10′33″E / 41.375556°N 2.175833°E / 41.375556; 2.175833

Maritime Museum of Barcelona

Museu Marítim de Barcelona (MMB)
Established	23 October 1936; 87 years ago (23 October 1936)
Location	Barcelona Royal Shipyard, Avinguda de les Drassanes s/n, Barcelona
Type	Maritime museum
Visitors	301,836 (2018)[1]
Director	Elvira Mata i Enrich
Public transit access	Drassanes
Website	www.mmb.cat

The Maritime Museum of Barcelona (Catalan: Museu Marítim de Barcelona, MMB) is located in the building of Drassanes Reials de Barcelona, the royal arsenal of Barcelona, dedicated to shipbuilding between the thirteenth century and eighteenth century. The first mention of these arsenals date from 1243 in a document indicating the boundaries of the city of Barcelona where it mentions its shipyard.^[2]

It shows the history of the navigation from the early days together with the history of the Spanish Navy since the Catholic Monarchs, in the 15th century, up to the present. It also hosts several navigation instruments, weapons, portolans and paintings. The museum was declared Museum of National Interest by the Government of Catalonia.^[3]

Building

It is located inside Barcelona Royal Shipyard (Catalan: Drassanes Reials de Barcelona; Spanish: Atarazanas Reales de Barcelona) a shipyard and former military building of Gothic architecture placed at the Port Vell area of the Port of Barcelona. Construction started during the 13th century under the rule of Peter III of Aragon.

The building is of Gothic style, its construction was carried out in a first stage between 1283 / 1328 and the second between 1328 / 1390. Subsequent reforms and extensions have been made, basically keeping the original structure.

During excavations in 2012^[4][5][6] it was discovered that in the late 16th century a new building was constructed on top of the old medieval dockyard, giving the building its current structure. This excavations also uncovered a Roman graveyard. The shipyard's restoration was finished in early 2013. The Museum was reopened in 2014.^[7]