Castell de Montjuic - Montjuic castle
Address
Carretera de Montjuïc, 66, Barcelona, 08038, Spain
Telephone
933298613
E-mail
Nearest Metro
Parallel L3
City District
Sants-Montjuic: Montjuïc
It is now open to the public and well worth a visit. Entrance is free.
The castle was built in 1640 during the war between Catalonia and Spain's Felipe IV, known as the "War of the Reapers." At the beginning of the 18th century Bourbon troops ransacked the castle and then rebuilt it between 1751 and 1779. The new fortress built by the Bourbons was constructed in the form of a starred pentagon with enormous moats, bastions, and buttresses. The castle is infamous in Catalan history books because of its role in the dictator Franco's regime as a place where political prisoners were imprisoned, tortured and executed, among them Lluís Companys, who was president of the Generalitat de Catalunya at the beginning of Spain's civil war and later executed at Montjuic in 1940.
The castle was also home to the Museu Del Comic I La Illustracio, the Comic Book and Illustrations Museum and the Military Museum of Barcelona. Since spring of 2008 the castle ownership has been given to the city of Barcelona and the castle will be used exclusively for cultural activities in the new Montjuïc Park Centre. and the new Barcelona Peace Centre. The Barcelona Peace Centre is managed by three administrations, the Spanish and Catalan Governments and the Barcelona City Council.
Opening times:
Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10a.m. to 8 p.m.
How to get to the Castle of Montjuic:
By tour bus: Montjuic tour bus (daytime)
By public transport:
Montjuic funicular train from Parallel Metro station, then take the Montjuic cable car up to the castle or walk from the top of the funicular to the castle. That takes about 10 minutes.