The Museu d'Història de Barcelona (MUHBA) has started a new line of work on the history and memory of sexual and gender diversity in the city. The museum says it wants to bring these lives into the way Barcelona tells its own history, and it plans to add research, activities and exhibitions over the coming years. The first part of the series, called Història de la diversitat sexual i de gènere a Barcelona, runs in October 2026, and two of its dates are still ahead.
Two afternoons in the Saló del Tinell
On 7 and 8 October the museum holds its first conference on the subject, Barcelona LGTBIQA+: abordatges conceptuals i història dels drets i llibertats. It takes place in the Saló del Tinell, the great medieval hall of the royal palace on Plaça del Rei, from 17:00 to 20:00 on Wednesday 7 October and from 16:00 to 19:30 on Thursday 8 October.
The first afternoon deals with how to write the history of sexual and gender dissidence, with speakers from the University of Barcelona, Pompeu Fabra University and the women's documentation centre Ca la Dona. The second covers exile and repression, the Vota Rosa campaign and the movement's political work, the road from social change to legal rights, and the links between medicine and rights. Two former general secretaries of the Coordinadora Gai i Lesbiana, a lawyer from the city's Centre LGTBI and the HIV organisation Creación Positiva are on the programme.
Entry is free, but places have to be booked in advance, by email to reservesmuseuhistoria@bcn.cat or by phone on +34 93 256 21 22.
A walk from Plaça del Rei to the Paral·lel
On Wednesday 14 October the series closes its first part with a guided route on persecution, visibility and the fight for LGBTIQA+ rights, led by the historian Leopold Estapé Amat. It covers the years from the Second Republic to the Transition, 1931 to 1980: cross-dressing, people whose identities broke the rules of the time, and above all the laws that targeted them and the repression that followed. The walk starts on Plaça del Rei at 18:00, ends two hours later on Plaça de Raquel Meller on the Paral·lel, and costs 8 euros. It is booked through the same reservations desk.
The museum's own conditions say its visits and routes are given in Catalan unless stated otherwise, and the route's page states no other language. The conference page does not name a language either, and its whole programme is published in Catalan. Visitors who do not follow Catalan should ask the reservations desk before booking. The museum offers its routes in other languages for groups.
The series opened on 3 October with a preview screening of the documentary Gorda y Divina, about drag artists off stage, at the Sala Moragues in El Born.
For the rest of a stay, our Barcelona city guide lists the city's bars, clubs, saunas and hotels, and the Spain page covers LGBTQ+ rights in the country.
