Jardins de Mossèn Costa i Llobera

The steep southeastern slope of Montjuïc overlooking the business end of Barcelona's port is sheltered from the winds and enjoys a special sunny microclimate, with temperatures on the average 2-3 degrees warmer than the rest of the city. It is especially conducive to exotic plants. Earlier plantations, however, were mostly ripped out during the Civil War and replaced with the anti-air defenses.

In the late 1960s, over 800 species of succulents from around the world were planted in 3.6 hectares, in what is considered one of top collections in the Mediterranean (in 1986, the New York Times even called it one of the ten best gardens in the world)—a Manhattan of towering cacti, interspersed with exotic specimens that look as if they have dropped in from another planet; some of the exotic trees that survived the Civil War are hundreds of years old.