Places cristyshepherd Wants to Go

A New York–based physician returned home to Spain to build his own elaborate monument to Christopher Columbus.

The gardens and chambers of this Moorish citadel conjure memories of the Alhambra.

This Moorish fortress has guarded Málaga from the slopes of Gibralfaro hill for nearly a thousand years.

Bold black and white motifs of life and death add a dramatic flair to this 17th-century crypt.

Open since 1912, this restaurant is one of the few left that serves chicken with lobster and other Catalan-style surf and turf staples.

Start your day with a Catalan-style “fork breakfast”—complete with booze—at this rustic restaurant.

These 2000 year old remains of a Roman aqueduct are hidden inside a hotel lobby.

It’s Christmas every day at Barcelona’s oldest restaurant.

Sink your spoon into a luscious crema Catalana at this former urban dairy farm.

Behind this unmarked facade lies the original bomba—a crunchy orb of fried mashed potatoes stuffed with minced meat.

Dunk your churros in rich hot chocolate on the city’s old “Chocolate Street.”

Catalonia Tradition: Beating the hollow Christmas log until it defecates in your fireplace.

A centuries-old bar once frequented by Picasso, Hemingway, and Dalí.

An early 20th-century bullring converted into a modern shopping center.

This home designed for chocolate magnate Antoni Amatller is an exquisite treasure-box of Catalan Modernism.

Occupied for six centuries by Franciscan Order nuns, this monastery is an amazing ode to Catalán Gothic architecture.

Possibly the oldest church in Barcelona, this basilica has its pagan and Christian mythologies all mixed up.

One of Antoni Gaudí's least-visited works, an homage to Catalan patrimony that mixes neo-Gothic with Modernista forms.

One of Antoni Gaudí’s earliest buildings, built between 1886 and 1890 for the industrialist Eusebi Güell.

This former Baroque palace on the historic Calle Montcada is a rare architectural gem and was once the meeting place of an aristocratic scholarly society.

A cemetery in Barcelona's Poblenou district is home to this touching funerary statue, which depicts death in the form of a winged skeleton.

The 2,000-year-old Roman columns are hidden within Barcelona's Gothic Quarter.

Bask in the 19th century grandeur of an eccentric Freemason millionaire's private gardens.

Mountain where Jesus was first tempted by the Devil.