Parks & Gardens: A brief survey

Although it always had the verdant slopes of Montjuïc and further afield, the beautiful Collserola mountains, Barcelona didn't have any public gardens until the 19th century, when it exploded out of its walls and demolished its hated fortress, the Ciutadella. The liberated real estate soon became the city's first proper park, the delightful Parc de la Ciutadella, and proud scene of the city's first world fair.

Its trees were just maturing when Gaudí created the revolutionary and utterly magical Park Güell–designed for Barcelona's richest man as an exclusive housing estate before Güell donated it to the city.

More parks were opened up in the 1920s when the lower slopes of Montjuïc were properly landscaped (to primp for another world's fair and Barcelona's first attempt to stage the Olympics). It still boasts most of city's green spaces, from the botanical gardens to a surreal cacti garden overlooking the sea. The pretty gardens of the Palau de Pedralbes north of the centre were laid out at the same time.