The Rough Guide to Barcelona 8 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)

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in the moat.There are open-air film screenings here in summer too.You have
to pay to go inside the inner keep, where there’s a splendid mirador (viewpoint)
and Museu Militar (April–Oct Tues–Sun 9.30am–8pm; Nov–MarchTues–Fri
9.30am–5/6pm, Sat & Sun until 7/8pm; €3, mirador only €1; T933 298 613,
W ), which presents endless swords, guns, medals,
uniforms, armour, model castles, maps and portraits in a series of rooms around
the parade ground and down on the lower level of the bastion.The fortress is
army (and therefore state) property and its museum has long been considered
an anachronism by the city – there was an equestrian statue of Franco here for
many years, and even now there’s barely a hint in the museum displays (other
than some Republican uniforms and weaponry) that Barcelona was ripped
apart by Civil War. However, the Spanish government recently decided to
hand the fortress over to the city and it will eventually be converted into a
Peace Museum.
Below the castle walls, a panoramic pathway – the Camí del Mar – has been
cut from the cliff edge, providing magnificent views, first across to Port Olímpic
and the northern beaches, and then southwest as the path swings around the
castle. This is an unfamiliar view of the city, of the sprawling docks and
container yards, and cruise ships and tankers are usually visible negotiating the
busy sea lanes.The path is just over 1km long and ends at the back of the castle
battlements near the Mirador del Migdia , where there’s a great open-air chill-
out bar, La Caseta del Migdia (weekends all year from 10 or 11am, plus summer
weekend DJ nights, W ). Down through the trees is the mirador
itself, a balcony with extensive views over the Baixa Llobregat industrial area.
You can see across to the Olympic stadium from here, while in the immediate
foreground is the extraordinary Cementiri del Sud-Oest, stretching along
the ridge below, whose tombs are stacked like apartment blocks on great
conifer-lined avenues.
The gardens of Montjuïc
Montjuïc’s main gardens are scattered across the southern and eastern reaches
of the hill, below the castle. Principal among them is the Jardí Botànic de
Barcelona (daily: June–Aug 10am–8pm; April, May & Sept 10am–7pm; Feb,
March & Oct–March 10am–6pm; Nov–Jan 10am–5pm; €3.50, free last Sun of
month; T934 264 935; W ), on c/Dr Font i Quer, laid
out on terraced slopes which offer fine views across the city. The Montjuïc
buses run here directly, or the entrance is just a five-minute walk around the
back of the Olympic stadium. It’s a beautifully kept contemporary garden,
where wide, easy-to-follow paths (fine for strollers and wheelchairs) wind
through landscaped zones representing the flora of the Mediterranean, Canary
Islands, California, Chile, North and South Africa and Australia. Just don’t come
in the full heat of the summer day, as there’s very little shade. Guided tours in
Spanish/Catalan every weekend (except August) show you the highlights, but
you get an English-language audio-guide and map included in the entry fee in
any case.
Signposted off Avinguda de Miramar, west of (and below) the Fundació Joan
Miró, the terraces, clipped hedges and grottoes of the Jardins Laribal (daily
10am–dusk; free) date from 1918.They surround the spring of Font del Gat ,
which has been a picnic site since the nineteenth century. Josep Puig i Cadafalch
MONTJUÏC
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The gardens of
Montjuïc