Controversy in Barcelona over the new Museo Thyssen: nine floors above the historic Comèdia cinema

The City Council’s Urban Planning Commission has initially approved the amendment to the Metropolitan General Plan that will make it possible to transform the former Comèdia cinema, where Passeig de Gràcia meets Gran Via, into an ambitious cultural facility.

The project, promoted by Baroness Thyssen and scheduled for 2027, will retain the listed façades of Palau Marcet, but will grow vertically with two distinct volumes: one of up to nine storeys on the Gran Via side and another of six on Passeig de Gràcia. This extension seeks to harmonise the building with neighbouring properties and give it the scale needed to house a first-rate museum.

It will have exhibition rooms, an auditorium for 450 people, workshops and classrooms, and a quarter of the space—around 2,400 m²—will be devoted to complementary uses such as specialist shops and a restaurant. Investment will exceed 19 million euros, entirely borne by the developers.

However, the project has already generated strong controversy. Virtual images of the future building have sparked a wave of criticism on social media. Many Barcelona residents consider the construction of volumes of up to nine storeys on top of the historic cinema to be “an attack on heritage”. “It is nonsense. It is terrible that the City Council has approved this crime,” some users lament.