Parks

Barcelona has a magnificent compound of parks. The most outstanding are the Ciudadela park, the Güel park, the Pedralbes park and the Joan Miró park, apart from the sites in Montjuïc.

Castels del tres Dragons, in the Ciaudadela park. Picture Guiarte.

The Ciudadela park is one of the most characteristic ones of the city. A great fortress of tragic memory occupied this space, until it was given to the city so that the Universal Exposition could be held there.

On a corner of the site there is a beautiful brick building, crowned by merlons, the Castell dels tres Dragons, by Domenech i Montaner (1887), today holding the Zoology museum.

During the 19th-century, the antique ceramy and forging techniques were studied here for the first time, an idea that boosted the renaissance of decorative arts in Catalonia.

Concerning the gardens, the Parliament building, the Modern Art museum and the cascade nearby a triumph arch are remarkable, proyects in which the young student Antonio Gaudí already participated.

Pedralbes is a palace meant as the royal residence, occupied by King Alfonso XIII in 1926, with excellent gardens designed by Jean Claude Forrestier.

The Güel park, declared common heritage of Mankind by the UNESCO, is a garden city ordered by Eusebi Güell and designed by the immortal architect. However, only two of the houses proyected were built in the site, which was conserved as a park. The beautiful town planning was done between 1900 and 1914.

The Joan Miró park is sited in the place of an old slaughterhouse, now dedicated to leisure and sport, presided by a peculiar sculptural compound by Joan Miró.

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