Spain tourist attractions include Royal Palace of Madrid, Cordoba’s Mezquita, Barcelona’s Sagrada Família church, Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum, and Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias in Valencia.
Royal Palace of Madrid (patrimonionacional.es) is the official residence for the King of Spain.
The magnificent royal palace is actually the largest royal palace in Western Europe, consisting of more than 2,800 rooms and 135,000 square meters (1,453,127 sq.ft) of space.
There are guided tours available to the palace, during times when the royal family is not using it.
Highlights of these tours include…
- the royal gardens,
- a throne room, and
- Sabatini Gardens, named after the Italian architect who designed the royal palace.
Cordoba’s Mezquita (mezquitacatedral.com) (also known as the Great Mosque of Cordoba) is a relic from the time when Cordoba was the capital city of Cordoba Caliphate, an Islamic empire that ruled areas in Southern Iberian Peninsula and North Africa.
During that period, from 929-1031, Cordoba was, in the opinion of many historians, signifant not only in terms of Europe, but perhaps the entire world’s biggest and most important city.
Today, Mezquita is used as the main church by the diocese of Cordoba.
Sagrada Família church (sagradafamilia.cat), meanwhile, a design byAntoni Gaudi, is a massive Catholic church in Barcelona, still under construction.
Construction work on the church began in 1882, and, under the current plans, the work will be completed around year 2026, exactly a century after Gaudi’s death.
The most impressive feature of the church are its 18 sphere-shaped towers.
These towers are, according to Gaudi, allegorical to:
- 12 Apostles,
- four Evangelists,
- Virgin Mary, and
- Jesus Christ (the tallest of the towers).
Of the Spain tourist attractions, Bilbao’s Guggenheim Museum(www.guggenheim-bilbao.es) is a museum of modern and contemporary art, designed by the famous architect Frank Gehry.
Immediately after being opened to the public (in 1997), the museum rose to amongst the most significant buildings in the world, representing the best in deconstructive architecture style.
The museum often has temporary art exhibitions, with its permanent exhibition containing mostly 20th century modern art, from many of the most famous artists of the era, including Jeff Koons.
Finally, Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias (cac.es) in Valencia is an exceptional group of modern buildings, designed by Valencian architect Santiago Calatrava.
The buildings contain, for example…
- Valencia opera house and performance arts center,
- Imax theater and a planetarium,
- “L’Umbracle” pedestrian walkway and park,
- El Museu de les Ciències Príncipe Felipe (a science museum), and
- L’Oceanogràfic: an oceanographic park.