Origin: Bilbao, Barcelona and Madrid

The novel opens high in Catalonia. Billionaire futurist Edmond Kirsch meets Bishop Antonio Valdespino, Rabbi Yehuda Köves and Imam Syed al-Fadl at the Santa Maria de Montserrat Abbey and tells them about a discovery he plans to release. The opening chapter of Origin is set here, 48 kilometres northwest of Barcelona. Legend places the finding of the Virgin of Montserrat statue around 880. The abbey can be reached by road, train or cable car.

Visitor guidance: The abbey can be reached by road, train or cable car.

Kirsch stages his big reveal at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Among the guests are his former teacher Robert Langdon and the museum's curator Ambra Vidal. Each guest wears a headset linked to Winston, an artificial intelligence Kirsch developed himself, and Winston leads Langdon to a private meeting with Kirsch. Before the discovery can be shown, Kirsch is shot dead. The museum, opened by Juan Carlos I on 18 October 1997, unfolds in stone, glass and titanium along the Nervión River.

Visitor guidance: A working art museum in Bilbao; check current opening hours before you go.

Winston steers Langdon and Ambra Vidal to Kirsch's apartment in Antoni Gaudí's Casa Milà in Barcelona. There Langdon learns that Kirsch was dying of pancreatic cancer. The building is popularly known as La Pedrera, "the stone quarry", for its unconventional rough-hewn appearance; Pere Milà and his wife Roser Segimon commissioned it in 1906. Since 2013 the Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera has managed visits, so you can go inside.

Visitor guidance: Visits to the building are managed by the Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera; check its site for tickets.

Kirsch owned a book of William Blake's complete works, which he donated to Sagrada Família, so Langdon and Ambra head there. Inside they find the password, the final stanza of Blake's Four Zoas: "The dark Religions are departed & sweet Science reigns." Construction of the church began on 19 March 1882, and on 7 November 2010 Pope Benedict XVI consecrated it and proclaimed it a basilica.

Visitor guidance: Open to visitors; check the basilica's site for tickets and hours.

Langdon finds Winston's source inside the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, where the novel places the E-Wave device. Once the password is entered, Kirsch's presentation finally starts, to hundreds of millions of viewers. The real center is located in a former chapel named Torre Girona, at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, and its MareNostrum supercomputer is contained inside an enormous glass box in the old chapel.

The royal palace hangs over the whole chase. Winston concludes that Spain's royal palace, and therefore Prince Julián, was behind the assassination, and Ambra's Guardia Real agents want her to make her way to the palace at once. At the end Ambra returns to the palace and Langdon is cleared of all charges. The real Royal Palace of Madrid is the official residence of the Spanish royal family, used mainly for state ceremonies, with 3,418 rooms.

Location precision: The novel speaks only of the royal palace; the pin marks the Royal Palace of Madrid as its real counterpart.

Visitor guidance: The palace is a state-ceremony venue; check current visiting arrangements.