In the heart of Gràcia and close to Fontana metro station, you’ll find the Centre Artesà Tradicionàrius (C.A.T.) – Folk Music and Dance Centre.

The first thing you will notice at the entrance of C.A.T is that, if you take a look at the canopy, you will observe a bronze sculpture of a young girl lying down while reading a book. The girl is Anne Frank as created by Catalan sculptor, Sara Pons. And the reason the sculpture is here is because C.A.T. is located in Plaça d’Anna Frank.

This cultural spot opened its doors in 1993. Centre Artesà Tradicionàrius is a publicly owned venue managed by the Associació Cultural TRAM which preserves and promotes mostly Catalan traditional music and folklore, but is also open to Spanish music traditions and international traditional music and dance.
It has an interesting programme that offers concerts, traditional dance and improvisation sessions, along with workshops and performances by international folk musicmakers.

Also, every year, C.A.T. celebrates with a music festival called Tradicionarius, which has been running since 1988.

It’s a flexibly sized venue which can host gigs for up to 200 people.

There is a small coffee bar inside called El café del Tradicionarius, which is open all day during the week.

I have been here to see international artists such as Glen Hansard—the ex-Frames Irish music maker who starred in the Oscar winning movie Once. It was a memorable gig.