The MUHBA collections

The MUHBA brings together physical evidence of culture that can help explain the city's remote and recent past past through its extensive collection of more than 35,200 objects.

One of the Museum’s tasks is to conserve a large number of objects that are linked with municipal life, such as the city's festivals, parades and traditions, its guilds – in short, its history.

In addition to this group of objects linked with municipal history (and in many cases proceedings from legacies and donations), the collection also contains objects that have come from archaeological interventions in the city, which produces a further 4,000-5,000 objects every year. In fact, this group never stops growing at considerable speed. This is because it is presently the only source of acquisition for the collection and because some there are always more findings from archaeological interventions.

The excavations carried out at the old Born Market produced more than 3,000 objects that were given over to the museum. This constant increase in its collection is one of the museum's most unique features, and differentiates it from other municipal museum centres. Over a short period of time, this annual progression will experience a marked increase as a result of the reviewing and updating of the collection's records, a task that began in autumn 2006.

In order to deal with an already massive yet growing collection, the Barcelona History Museum has created the Centre de Col•leccions (Collections Centre).  Its task is to safeguard, conserve and organise the items it contains (which represents around 75% of the museum's total collection) and to make it available for research and dissemination.