The pavilion you see at the foot of Montjuïc is not the one from 1929. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich designed it for Germany at the Barcelona International Exhibition, and when the Exhibition ended, in 1930, it was taken down. What you visit is a reconstruction, opened in 1986 on the same spot, with stone of the same quality and the same origin as the original.

There is nothing to look at in the way you look at a museum: no rooms, no display cases. There is a flat roof, a few walls of stone and glass that never quite enclose the space, two pools of water and a statue. A ticket costs 9 euros, but in November 2026 the pavilion has a calendar all of its own, with two closures and eleven days when you can only get in for an art installation.

What is there to see in a building that contains nothing?

A pavilion for Germany, in 1929

The 1929 International Exhibition filled the hill of Montjuïc, and the participating countries built their national pavilions there. The German one was designed by Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich, who in 1928 had been appointed artistic director of the German section, the same role as Mies.

What was a pavilion with nothing to exhibit for?

For receiving. It was Germany’s showcase for official occasions, and it hosted the official reception presided over by King Alfonso XIII and Queen Victoria Eugenia, together with the German authorities.

the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion with its flat white roof, travertine walls, a slender steel pillar and a stone bench beside a flowerbed

When the Exhibition was over, in 1930, the pavilion was taken down, and for more than fifty years it no longer existed.

Four stones, steel and glass

The space is made of a few elements, and each has a different material. The roof is a flat white slab, and beneath it you see a few slender steel pillars and walls that never come together into a closed room: you pass from inside to outside without noticing the threshold.

There are four stones: Roman travertine, green Alpine marble, ancient green marble from Greece and golden onyx from the Atlas. With them come the steel of the pillars and frames and the glass of the large transparent walls.

a green marble wall beside the large glass walls of the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion, under the thin edge of the roof, with ivy in front

The onyx wall

Under the roof stands a free-standing wall that encloses nothing: the wall of golden onyx. Go up close and look at the veining. The slabs were cut and set side by side so that the lines repeat as a mirror image from one slab to the next, like the wings of a butterfly.

the onyx wall of the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion, with red and gold veining laid out as a mirror image, under the flat roof and beside a steel pillar

In the pavilion you also find the seating that Mies and Reich designed for this building, the Barcelona chair and its stool: an X-shaped metal frame and a leather cushion. They are still made today, and you have probably seen one before without knowing where it came from.

three pale leather Barcelona stools with X-shaped steel legs in front of the onyx wall of the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion

The two pools and the Kolbe statue

The pavilion has two pools. The larger one is in the open, enclosed by travertine walls, and you can see the pebbles on the bottom through the shallow water.

the large pool of the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion, enclosed by travertine walls, with shallow water and pebbles on the bottom

The smaller one is in a courtyard enclosed by green marble walls, and in one corner stands a bronze statue: a woman with her arms raised above her head. It is a reproduction of Dawn by the German sculptor Georg Kolbe.

the bronze statue of a woman with raised arms in the corner of the small pool of the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion, between walls of veined green marble

The 1986 reconstruction

Why rebuild a building that had lasted so short a time?

Because that short time had been enough to make it a model. In 1980 Oriol Bohigas, who headed urban planning at Barcelona City Council, launched the reconstruction project; the architects Ignasi de Solà-Morales, Cristian Cirici and Fernando Ramos researched the sources, designed and supervised the work, which began in 1983. The new pavilion opened in 1986, on the original site.

Today it is run by the Fundació Mies van der Rohe, which also uses it for temporary exhibitions and art installations: that is why its calendar is full of special days, and it is always worth checking before you go.

Practical information

Details checked on 28 October 2026 on the official website, miesbcn.com. Prices and opening hours change: check again before you leave.

TicketsThe full ticket costs 9 euros and includes the audio guide, which is available in English. The reduced ticket costs 5 euros and is for students, unemployed people, and large and single-parent families. With the Bus Turístic and the Barcelona Card you get 25% off. Tickets are sold at the entrance or online, and on Tiqets you will find the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion entry ticket, at the same price.
Opening hoursThe pavilion is open every day: from March to October from 10:00 to 20:00, from November to February from 10:00 to 18:00. Entry is allowed until 15 minutes before closing.
ClosuresIt is closed on 25 December and on the days marked on the website’s calendar. In November 2026 it is closed from the 2nd to the 11th and from the 23rd to the 27th, to install and dismantle the installation Pavelló-Laberint; from 12 to 22 November entry is only with a ticket bought in advance on Tiqets, for the chosen time slot.
Free admissionUnder-16s go in free. On the first Sunday of the month admission is free for everyone, with no booking needed.
Getting thereThe address is Avinguda Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia 7. The metro station is Espanya, on lines L1 and L3; the Montjuïc funicular also comes up from the centre, from Paral·lel station.
AccessibilityThe pavilion is accessible to people with reduced mobility.
BookThe Mies van der Rohe PavilionBook the Mies PavilionAffiliate links

The pavilion is the first of three buildings close together on the hill. A little higher up is the Poble Espanyol, the village built for the same 1929 Exhibition, and further up the Fundació Joan Miró, a modern building made specifically to hold art. To see what Barcelona was building with entirely different ideas, the comparison is with Gaudí’s Casa Batlló, finished more than twenty years earlier.

Photographs from Wikimedia Commons: the pavilion with its travertine walls, by Christian Gänshirt, CC BY-SA 4.0; the green marble and the glass walls, the onyx wall and the large pool, by Ardfern, CC BY-SA 3.0; the stools in front of the onyx, by Cl3phact0, CC BY-SA 4.0; the Kolbe statue, by 19Tarrestnom65, CC BY-SA 4.0.