The Museu Picasso in Barcelona is free on Thursdays from 16:00 to 19:00, on the first Sunday of every month and on 12 February, 17 May and 24 September, always with a booking, which opens four days ahead from 10:00. Under-18s always get in free. Otherwise a ticket costs 12 euros online and 13 at the ticket office.
The Museu Picasso in Barcelona is free every Thursday afternoon and on the first Sunday of each month, but turning up at the door is not enough: you have to book, and places are released four days ahead. For someone living in the city for a few months, it is easy to slot into any week. This guide explains how free entry works, what it costs the rest of the time and what is inside, which is as much the building as the paintings.
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When it is free, and why you must book
Entry is free on Thursdays from 16:00 to 19:00, on the first Sunday of every month and on three open days: 12 February, 17 May, International Museum Day, and 24 September. From 31 March to 27 September there is an extra slot: Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 19:00 to 21:00.
In every case booking is required. It opens four days before the visit, from 10:00, and the museum has limited capacity. For a Thursday, then, check on Sunday morning. Under-18s always get in free.
What it costs the rest of the time
A general ticket, covering the collection and the temporary exhibition, costs 12 euros online and 13 at the ticket office. The reduced ticket costs 7 euros and is for people aged 18 to 25, accredited university students, over-65s and holders of a Barcelona Libraries card. Bicing card holders get a 25 % discount.
Two of those discounts are for locals: someone spending a few months here who gets a library card or uses Bicing already pays less without waiting for Thursday. The museum also has a Friend card that gives free entry.
Opening hours
From 29 September to 29 March it opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 19:00. From 31 March to 27 September it opens Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday from 9:00 to 20:00, and Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 9:00 to 21:00. It closes every Monday of the year, on 1 January, 1 May, 24 June and 25 December. On 24 and 31 December it opens from 10:00 to 14:00. The ticket office closes 30 minutes before the museum.
Five palaces on Carrer Montcada
The museum occupies five palaces on Carrer Montcada, dating originally from the 13th and 14th centuries and heavily remodelled, above all in the 18th. They are a fine example of Catalan civil Gothic: houses around a courtyard, with an open outdoor staircase climbing to the main floor. It opened in 1963 in the Palau Aguilar; in 1970 the Palau del Baró de Castellet was added, then the Palau Meca, opened as part of the museum on 11 January 1982, and in 1999 the Casa Mauri and the Palau Finestres, which now house the temporary exhibitions.
The buildings deserve a slow look. The courtyard of the Palau Aguilar is 15th-century, with a gallery of pointed arches, and in the sixties a late 13th-century fresco of the conquest of Mallorca was found in one of its rooms; it now hangs in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. The Baró de Castellet has a neoclassical salon of marble and polychrome reliefs. And the façade of the Casa Mauri keeps a small 18th-century wooden lattice that is practically the only one left in Barcelona. In all, the museum covers 11,500 square metres with 22 permanent exhibition rooms.
Las Meninas: four months facing Velázquez
The best-known room holds the Las Meninas series. Picasso painted it in Cannes between 16 August and 30 December 1957: 58 works, of which 45 are interpretations of Velázquez's painting, 9 are the pigeons in the dovecote he could see from his studio, three are landscapes and one is a portrait of Jacqueline. He dated each canvas on the back, sometimes noting the order when he painted more than one on the same day.
He did not want the series split up. He resolved not to sell a single piece and in 1968 gave the whole set to the museum. That is why it hangs in chronological order, so you can see the rhythm of the work; some details only emerge as you move from one canvas to the next, like the piano that appears beside the jester Nicolasito Pertusato.
Why here
The collection holds around 5,000 works and is the reference point for Picasso's formative years. The location is no accident either: in 1960 Jaume Sabartés, who wanted to give his collection of Picasso works to the city, chose the Palau Aguilar because it stood in the Ribera neighbourhood, where Picasso lived between 1895 and 1904. For the Barcelona of those years, follow the thread at Els Quatre Gats, where he held his first solo exhibition.
Getting there
The museum is at Carrer Montcada, 15-23. The nearest metro stop is Jaume I, on L4; Arc de Triomf, on L1, is also a short walk away. By bus, the 45, V15 and V17 stop on Via Laietana, and the 39, 51 and H14 on Passeig Picasso. It has no car park of its own.
Checked
Information checked in October 2026 on the official website of the Museu Picasso de Barcelona (museupicassobcn.cat): opening hours and prices, how to get there, buildings, collection, the museum's history and the pages on the Las Meninas series (chronology and new presentation). Free slots and prices can change: confirm them on its website before booking.
Quick questions
When is the Museu Picasso in Barcelona closed?
Every Monday of the year, plus 1 January, 1 May, 24 June and 25 December.
How many works are in Picasso's Las Meninas series?
58 works painted in Cannes in 1957: 45 interpretations of Velázquez's painting, 9 pigeons, three landscapes and a portrait of Jacqueline. Picasso gave the whole series to the museum in 1968.
Who gets a reduced ticket at the Museu Picasso?
People aged 18 to 25, accredited university students, over-65s and holders of a Barcelona Libraries card pay 7 euros.