Palau de la Música

Barcelona's Palau de la Música Catalana is a concert hall designed in the Catalan 'Modernista' style by the architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner. It was built between 1905 and 1908 for a choral society. As such, the concert hall of the Palau is covered in extravagant choral-themed sculpture. At the time of construction, the building's beneficiaries requested that its architect use styles and techniques that emphasized the Catalan national character. In response, he commissioned and gave great creative freedom to a variety of local artisans and craftsmen to produce the ornamentation, sculpture and decorative structural elements. The hall, which seats about 2,200 people, is the only auditorium in Europe that is illuminated during daylight hours entirely by natural light.