Parc de la Ciutadella

For a project in the "History and Culture of Catalunya" class that was part of my proseminar, we had to research a public space.  The research involved observation, photos, interviews, and was presented in class as a PowerPoint.  We also have to write individual essays of 8-10 pages on the public space and hand them in before the end of February (I haven't started mine yet... probably should do that soon).

The public space my group and I chose was the Parc de la Ciutadella.  What Central Park is to NYC is what this park is to Barcelona.  And it's a 10 minute walk from my residence!  Here's a map to show you how big the park is and how far away I live (obviously, I'm the orange star and the park is the orange blob).  Map by Google Maps (plus Photoshop by me).

Here's a map of the park itself.  To see the photo full-sized, click on the image below.  And don't even try reading the text-- everything is written in Catalan.

In the 18th century, the king Felipe V decided to construct a citadel to dominate the city.  ('Ciutadella' in Catalan is 'Citadel' in English).  To the people of the time, the citadel was associated with repression and violence.  In the 1870's the general Joan Prim destroyed the citadel except for 3 buildings: the governor's palace, the chapel, and the arsenal.  Today, the arsenal is used as the building for the Parliament of Catalunya.

In 1888, there was a world exhibition in the park and for this, the architect Josep Fontseré was hired to construct the rest of the park with the purpose of making it family-friendly with attractions such as refreshment stands, a pond with row boats, gardens, and museums.

The park has several museums: geology, zoology, and a zoo that has over 400 species of animals and occupies the greatest area of the park (a little less than half, I think).


The entrance to the world exhibition was created just outside the park in a large promenade.  The entrance is strikingly similar to a famous monument in France, and even has the same name (although spelled differently): the Arc de Triomf.

I'm pretty sure that the Arc de Triomf attracts more tourists than the park, but given its proximity, plenty of tourists wander in.  The biggest tourist spot in the park is the Cascada (a gigantic fountain) created by Josep Fontseré with the help of Antonio Gaudi, who was a student at the time.

There are tons of statues scattered throughout the park.  My favorite, besides the gigantic fountain in the photos above, is a mammoth.  (And look at the cute kid!)

Nobody does anything too out of the ordinary in this park.  There's music, dancing, picnicking, strolling, running, walking, and even feeding the birds.  Here are two groups of people we interviewed for our project.  The first is Antonio who was feeding the birds and the second are two college- age kids having a picnic with just wine... no food.

When we presented our PowerPoint to the class, I put together a 2-minute video of the look-and-feel of the park.  The square videos with music were taken by my friend Hector, and all the other videos were taken by me.

And that's about all!  I should really get going on that essay, though... especially because I'm headed to Menorca next weekend!