The Barcelona library card: how to get one and the discounts it gives at museums, theatres and bookshops

The Biblioteques de Barcelona card is free and gives permanent discounts: 25 % off at CaixaForum Barcelona, 30 % at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, 15 % at the Teatre Lliure, tickets at 7 euros at the Cinemes Verdi and 5 % at bookshops. You apply at any library or online.

Anyone settling in Barcelona for a few months tends to get a library card for the wifi or a book, and takes a while to discover the rest: it is free and works as a small cultural discount card. The official Biblioteques de Barcelona list, last updated in November 2025, gathers museums, theatres, cinemas, festivals, bookshops and schools that accept it. This is what the library consortium and Barcelona International Welcome, the city's website for newcomers, explain.

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How to get one

The card is free, personal and non-transferable, and it is valid at every public library in Barcelona and, for a while now, at those in the rest of Catalonia too. There are two ways to get it. In person, at any library in the network, by filling in the application with your details: you get it on the spot. Or online, with a form that only works if it is your first card and you are 14 or over: you choose which library to collect it from, and from then on you have at most three months to pick it up with your original ID. In the meantime the system gives you a provisional card number for digital services.

Barcelona International Welcome lists the requirements as living in Catalonia and having an identity document, and names the DNI, the EU citizen registration certificate, the TIE, the NIE, a passport and a driving licence. It says nothing about the padrón. Under-14s need authorisation from their parents or guardians.

The card only expires if you go five years without using it. A duplicate costs 1 euro, and it is free if the card was stolen and you reported it. With the Biblioteques XBM app you carry it on your phone instead of the physical card. For wifi, sockets and the best desks to work at, see the guide to libraries for remote work.

What you can borrow

With one card you can have up to 30 items on loan at a time, of which at most 5 can be video games, for 30 days. Loans are renewed in person, by phone, by email or from ‘El meu compte’ in the catalogue, unless someone has reserved the item, it has already been renewed three times or the loan has expired. You can return them at any library in the network, and an email reminder arrives five days before the due date.

Late returns are paid in points, not money: 1 point per item per day, and at 50 points the card is blocked for fifteen days. The card also opens BiblioDigital, the digital content lending platform.

Museum discounts

This is the part fewest people know about. According to the official discounts leaflet, CaixaForum Barcelona and the CosmoCaixa science museum take 25 % off admission; the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, 30 %; the Museu Frederic Marès, 40 %; the Fundació Vila Casas, 50 %; the Reial Monestir de Santa Maria de Pedralbes, 30 %; and the Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau, 20 %.

Others apply their reduced rate: the Fundació Joan Miró, the Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Casa Vicens or the Museu Picasso, whose conditions we explain in the Museu Picasso guide. At the municipal museums, reduced admission to the permanent collection and 30 % off temporary exhibitions; at the Palau Güell, the mini rate of 5 euros.

Theatre, cinema and music

For theatre, the Teatre Lliure takes 15 % off, the Teatre Nacional de Catalunya 10 % and the Sala Atrium 15 %; the Festival Grec de Barcelona, 20 %. For cinema, the Cinemes Verdi sell tickets at 7 euros. For music, Jamboree Jazz takes 20 % off tickets and the Franz Schubert Filharmonia another 20 %, while the Palau de la Música Catalana and the Mercat de les Flors offer occasional discounts.

To keep up with what comes along, cardholders can subscribe to the discounts newsletter, which sends an email every fifteen days with a selection of current cultural activities.

Bookshops, courses and Sunday plans

A good dozen bookshops take 5 % off books, among them Laie, Documenta, Altair and the Llibreria de la Diputació de Barcelona. For newcomers, the University of Barcelona's Escola d'Idiomes Moderns has a reduced rate on courses and certification exams.

And for Sundays: the Poble Espanyol takes 25 % off, Tibidabo 20 %, the Mirador Torre Glòries 20 % and L'Aquàrium de Barcelona 10 %. The list changes from time to time, so check the latest version of the leaflet before you go.

Checked

Checked in October 2026 on: Biblioteques de Barcelona (library card, loan services and the leaflet ‘Descomptes amb el carnet de Biblioteques de Barcelona’, last updated November 2025) and Barcelona International Welcome (library card).