In its time it was one of the main buildings of the exhibition, and before it the Palace of Fine Arts had ceased to exist. It was at the end of the main street running from the Arc de Triomf to the Parc de la Ciutadella. Work began in September 1887, and suffered many delays, and so, on April 8, the day of the inauguration, it was not ready, delaying its opening until August 17. For this reason Domènech i Montaner resigned as the responsible architect. At the end of exhibition, Domenech himself installed an industrial arts workshop related to architecture, with the possible collaboration of Antoni Maria Gallissà i Soqué. Later it was dedicated to museum purposes, being a museum of history, archeology, biology and natural sciences. During the Spanish Civil War it was closed, after suffering some damage by bombing aviation Franco. From 1942 to 1945 it was chair of Social Aid to be definitely aimed at Museum of Zoology. In the 1980s it was restored by architects Cristian Cirici, Pep Bonet and Carles Bassó. From 1920 to 2010 it hosted the Zoology Museum of Barcelona. In 2010, that museum was dismantled and the zoology collections were transferred to the new Museum of Natural Sciences of Barcelona at the Forum Building.
Building
It is built with brick and sheet iron, and is a castle-shaped building crowned with battlements. The floor is almost square, with four towers at the corners and perimeter walkways running between a double facade. It has an innovative transparent structure of brick and iron, something similar to which appeared in the proposal by Hendrik Petrus Berlage in his project for the Amsterdam Stock Exchange. The ceramic decoration-patterned Joan Llimona and Alexandre de Riquer, and Pius Font i Quer and Joan Baptista Aguilar-Amat, sculpture by Antoni Vilanova, Alfons execution Juyol and Gonzalez Brothers and i Pujol ceramic Bausis-is located on the battlements and shield-shaped panels to the top, that break inblue on white a naturalistic program of plants and animals, including a number of drinks and liquors. The windows, missing hand, are the work of Antoni Rigalt i Blanch.
