The magic of Foixarda's pits
The Historic Botanical Garden houses a lush vegetation typical of Mediterranean and temperate climates.
Montjuïc is one of the main green spaces in Barcelona, with an outstanding cultural, sports and leisure activity. Throughout history, it has contributed to the growth of Barcelona and, in fact, its rocks have been exploited for centuries to construct many of the city's buildings. Today, its rock is not exploited, but the holes in its quarries remain and in some cases have been given a second use. This is the case of the Historic Botanical Garden, which occupies two of the hollows of the old quarry of La Foixarda. The sunken space has allowed the creation of a shady and leafy park, populated with species of the native flora and from other regions. The visit to the Garden is free of charge, and, in addition, on the first Sunday of October and November, the Natural Science Museum of Barcelona organises guided tours.
The Historic Botanical Garden is located behind the National Art Museum of Catalonia. It was built between 1930 and 1940 by Pius Font i Quer and Antoni de Bolòs, two of the most outstanding botanists of the last century in our country. It houses some of the most emblematic species of our flora, such as the olive tree, juniperus sabina, holm oak, ash, boxwood and palm heart. They are adapted to our climate, the Mediterranean, with a very marked seasonality and a dry and warm summer period. But the fact that we are in a sunken area of the shady Montjuïc means that the temperatures in certain corners are four degrees lower and the atmosphere is more humid. This favours the growth of species from colder climates and mountainous regions. For this reason, in the Garden you can find plants from other corners of the world such as Europe, Asia, North Africa or South America: beech, Atlas cedar, yew, Brazilian araucaria, and ginkgo.
Walking through the Garden is like travelling through different regions of the world through its vegetation, in which you can also see the tallest trees of Barcelona. The space also includes an ethnobotanical garden where useful plants the human being are grown, the farmhouse building built for the 1929 Universal Exhibition, and an insect hotel, among other curiosities.
More information at this link.