Foundational document

The Royal Academy of Science and Arts of Barcelona was established on 18 January 1764 as a private literary society under the name of Experimental Physico-mathematical Council.

Academy Home

Detail of the front of the RACAB's building, where we can observe the official time clock

Fabra Observatory

The Observatory has functioned uninterruptedly since its inauguration in 1904.

Fabra-ROA Telescope at Montsec

A new observatory with a Baker-Nunn càmera, located and the pre-Pyrenees, has been built in cooperation with the Royal Observatory of the Spanish Navy and the Department of Astronomy and Meteorology (University of Barcelona).

Les Ciències i les Arts

Detall de l'obra "Les Ciències i les Arts" de Lluís Masriera i Rosés

Previous Next

The Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts of Barcelona has its central site in Barcelona, in No. 115 of the Rambla (postcode 08002), on the land it received as a permanent Royal Grant on the 29th of September of 1786, in the building inaugurated in 1894 and designed by the architect and academician Josep Domenech i Estapa. Among the properties of the Academy is the Fabra Observatory, also designed by Domenech i Estapa, located in the Tibidabo (camí de l’Observatori s/n, 08035 Barcelona) and built thanks to a legacy of Camil Fabra i Fontanills, Marquis of Alella. It was inaugurated on the 7th of April of 1904 and declared to be of public interest by the Royal Order of the 2nd of May of 1916. The rest of the properties of the Academy are the Library, the Archive, the art collection and the old instrument collection, the clock collection, the astronomical, meteorological and seismological functional equipment, the historical collection of astronomical, meteorological and seismological instrumentation and observations. The seismological detection station of Fontmartina, in the Montseny, on land property of the Provincial Council of Barcelona, and the astronomical observation station in the Montsec mountain are also part of the inheritance of the Academy.

The Archive and the Library contain a documentary collection of high historical value of nearly three centuries. The Library, with more than a hundred thousand volumes, is one of the most important libraries in Spain in relation to the science of the second half of the 18th century.