FC Barcelona inaugurates the 'Barça Immersive Tour', featuring the largest immersive room in a sports museum in Europe

The new FC Barcelona Museum has been inaugurated next to the Palau Blaugrana in the building that used to house the Palau de Gel. FC Barcelona president, ​​Joan Laporta, FC Barcelona Museum director, Jordi Penas, and GRUP MEDIAPRO founding member, Jaume Roures, were all in attendance at the event, and they were joined by the Councillor for Culture from the Catalan Government, Natalia Garriga, and other representatives from cultural organisations from the city of Barcelona. Opening to the public on June 7, this new space will be used until the new museum at the future Spotify Camp Nou is inaugurated for the 2024/25 season.

The event began with a tour for the guests led by president Laporta to see the Barça Immersive Tour. This was also the moment when Joan Laporta and the women's football coach, Jonatan Giráldez, along with Xavi Puig, director responsible for women's football, Markel Zubizarreta, sports manager for women's football, and Xavier Budó, director of sports for FC Barcelona, placed the second Women's Champions League trophy to be won by the women's team into the cabinet.

Next up and now inside the largest immersive room in a sports museum in Europe, the speeches began, plus the official presentation o the new Espai Barça manifiesto, highlighting that this new space is the first part of the project on the campus.

Museum director, Jordi Penas, noted that the Museum has many aspects and that "it represents passion, dreams, the future, feelings, and aims for everyone visiting from all over the globe to enjoy their time with us". Jaume Roures explained that the aim was "to do what we did in 2010", referring to the refurbishment of the Spotify Camp Nou Museum, and described this new facility as "a unique space in Europe and means you to relive landmark moments in the Club's history". Roures also wanted to highlight the financial aspect and defined this Museum as "a great financial vector for the Club."

Presidente Laporta made the final speech, and prior to announcing the countdown to inaugurate the museum, his speech included "an invitation to every FC Barcelona fan and sports fan to go on a tour full of feelings, interaction and action.”

Laporta also thanked GRUP MEDIAPRO for their work in record time to produce what he considers "a marvel in the world of museums of feelings", defining the space as "a tool to tell and communicate Barça's history" and a necessary tool "to comply with the values set out by the Club's founder, Joan Gamper, in bringing FC Barcelona closer to sports fans, the city, and the region”. However, it goes further than a run through the Club's past and present, Joan Laporta highlighted that "this museum is the first piece of Espai Barça, where there is a place devoted to this new home for everything FC Barcelona" and where "visitors will feel the feelings and emotions from a trip to the future of Spotify Camp Nou”.

The most visited museum in Catalonia

The Barça Museum is an installation with both great historical and economic value. Recent years have seen a multitude of visitors each season - 1.8 million a year before the pandemic - and it has become the most visited museum in Catalonia, returning almost to pre-pandemic levels since the restrictions were lifted. Coinciding with the closure of the current museum due to the ongoing work on the stadium, the Club has prepared a new space some 2,400 square metres in size, split into different areas to create a better visitor experience, with the aim of temporarily replacing the current Stadium Tour & Museum.

A pilot project for the future new museum

This new museum was created to meet three main objectives. Firstly, to create a pilot project to use the most advanced technologies and fun activites that will feature in the future new Spotify Camp Nou Museum, where virtual reality, immersive activities, and holograms will be used for the Club's history in an entertainment focused environment. Another aim was to create a space that becomes a technological, modern and innovative reference, and lastly, to safeguard a signifiant source of income for the Club as much as possible.

The project was developed in conjunction with Mediapro Exhibitions, the GRUP MEDIAPRO division specialised in creating and developing exhibition and museum projects, and who carried out the refurbishment of the current museum in 2010. Mediapro Exhibitions are pioneers in sports museums and have completed more projects in this field than anyone else. Throughout their thirteen year history, they have developed projects in Europe, America and Asia, and their museums have been visited by over 10 million people. They have developed projects for FIFA, and for other clubs, such as Atlético Madrid and Athletic Club.