From the heights, Montjuïc is the largest green space in Barcelona and an exceptional vantage point over the city. A place to meet with Olympic sports, cultural facilities, world history and broad expanses of trees and gardens.
El Parc de Montjuïc, with 450 hectares, is one of the most visible parts of the city. Located on the large hill that goes from Sants to the Port of Barcelona, and parallel to the gastronómical neighborhood of Poble Sec.
Barcelona’s personality is marked by the history and the future of a place where green areas coexist with first class sports and cultural facilities. It is a hill named after the Middle Ages as ‘hill of the Jews‘, for it hosted their old cemetery.
From the participants of the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition to the Olympian athletes of Barcelona 92, going through art lovers or current entrepreneurs. Who has not visited Montjuïc during his visit to Barcelona?
Generations of visitors have toured its miles full of streets and roads, and they will keep doing it after the new challenges lying ahead.
Culture and Art in Montjuïc
Several museums can be visited in Montjuïc, such as Fundació Miró, Museu d’Arqueologia de Catalunya, el Museu Etnològic or the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (MNAC). The last one hosts on its own a thousand years of Catalan art in the Palau Nacional. All an artistic legacy. Éste último por sí solo, acoge mil años de arte catalán en el Palau Nacional. A truly artistic legacy.
It also deserves special attention CaixaForum, both for its collections and for the building hosting them. It is the old textile factory Casaramona, designed by modernist architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch.
An example of the architecture architecture of some buildings in Montjuïc that almost reached the sky on the occasion of the Universal Exhibition of 1929. An exhibition held in Montjuïc, the Palau Nacional building as central axis and leaving pieces like the magnificent Pabelló Mies van der Rohe.
However, the easiest way to tour the architecture of an entire country without going round and round is going to Poble Espanyol, cultural landmark for everyone.
Culture, beyond art and architecture, also reaches Montjuïc by the hand of drama. El Teatre Lliure or the historical Teatre Grec which annually celebrates the Greek Festival bring here traen hasta aquí lovers of classic and new theatrical productions.
Gardens and History in Montjuïc
Montjuïc is the largest green area of the city, with more than twenty parks and gardens. The mountain botanical itinerary includes themed zones as diverse as the Mossèn Jacint Verdaguer Gardens and those of Joan Brossa.
While the former are colorful when spring comes, those of Jacint Verdaguer are in the former grounds of the theme park of Montjuïc and those of Joan Brossa allow interaction and play musical sounds.
In between MNAC and Fundació Miró we find the Laribal Gardens, evoking the Mediterranean environment of Barcelona with inspiration from the famous Alhambra in Granada.
A visual espectacle completed near Avinguda de Miramar, where it awaits a vantage point overlooking Port Vell and part of the city of Barcelona. Beside it, the Costa i Llobera Gardens offer all varieties of cactus in a vegetal universe.
Finally, the Barcelona Botanic Garden (C/ Dr. Font i Quer, 2) The garden encompasses the planet’s vast plant variety and divulges it among the youngest along with the Natural History Museum.
Activities that may well complement a visit to the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc. The largest ornamental fountain in Barcelona offers a spectacle of music and color past sunset (thursday to sunday, from 9 – 11.30 p.m. ). Even though its high point is the “Piromusical” during la Mercè or Christmas Eve.
The Magic Fountain of Montjuïc from Daniel Staud on Vimeo.
Across the Venetian Towers, the monumental fountain in Plaça Espanya gives the classical counterpoint to the mountain spectacle.
Events and Sports in Montjuïc
Montjuïc experienced one of his moments of glory with the celebration of the Olympic Games in 1992. In the biggest Spanish sports event, the renovated Estadi Olímpic ‘Lluis Companys’, el Palau Sant Jordi or the Bernat Picornell swimming pools stood out on their own.
Another facilities such as INEFC (Institut Nacional d’Educació Física de Catalunya) or the Museu Olímpic i de l’esport complete the so-called Olympic Ring of Barcelona.
Nowadays, Montjuïc’s sports challenge has new plans ahead. From 2015 onwards, it will be hosting a theme park dedicated to sports and new technologies. A way of keeping the Olympic spirit very much alive in the city.
The so-called ‘Open Camp‘, will open in the second half of the year and will occupy 95,000 square meters in order to accommodate 16 million visitors.
The park will host from football or rugby matches to shooting competitions or fencing. Quite a ‘showroom’ where sports clubs and corporate sponsors will try to win new followers and present innovative products.
In line with the major conferences that annually celebrates the Fira de Barcelona, international impact events such as the Mobile World Congress, meetings projecting the residential market like the Barcelona Meeting Point o big musical events like Sónar are also part of the agenda.
Barcelona and Montjuïc prepare for 2015, a year that will make history.
