Jardín Botánico Histórico de Barcelona

The Historic Botanical Garden of Barcelona sits tucked into the slope of Montjuïc, in an area known as La Foixarda. It's an easy place to overlook if you're only chasing the castle or the Olympic stadium nearby, yet it rewards visitors with a quieter, older layer of the mountain's history — plants growing out of the scars of a former quarry.

How did this garden come to exist?

The land where the garden now stands was once the active Foixarda quarry. In 1915, the family of Josep Rovira i Bruguera ceded the site to the Barcelona City Council. The real push for transformation came with preparations for the 1929 International Exposition, which turned the whole of Montjuïc into a large urban park. It was in that context, in 1930, that botanist Pius Font i Quer was commissioned to build a collection of plants across two hollows left behind by the old quarry works.

When did the garden open to the public?

Construction and planting took over a decade. The garden officially opened on 17 July 1941. For decades afterward it served as a space for conserving and displaying rare plant species, until it closed to visitors in 1986 so the terrain could be stabilized and the grounds reinforced. After years of restoration work, it reopened in 2003, now run as part of the Museu de Ciències Naturals de Barcelona (Natural Sciences Museum of Barcelona).

What plants grow here?

Font i Quer focused the collection on endemic and rare species, drawn mainly from the Iberian Peninsula, the Balearic Islands, and Morocco. That focus sets it apart from the newer, much larger Jardí Botànic de Barcelona, opened in 1999 on the other side of the mountain, which instead showcases vegetation from the five Mediterranean-climate regions of the world. The historic garden kept a more intimate, scientific character rooted in its near-century-old origins.

What else is worth seeing on site?

In the second of the two hollows stands a masia, a traditional Catalan farmhouse-style building, erected by the Livestock Breeders' Association as a model farm for the 1929 World Exposition. The original plan envisioned it becoming a center for gardening work, seed research, plant propagation, laboratories, and comparative crop trials. Today the building remains part of the garden's supporting infrastructure and is a reminder of the exhibition roots of the whole Montjuïc complex.

Why visit while exploring Montjuïc?

The garden sits close enough to other Montjuïc landmarks — the castle, the Fundació Miró, the Olympic stadium — to fold easily into a longer day on the mountain, while offering a completely different pace: a quiet walk along rocky paths carved by a former quarry, with vegetation now growing through the site's industrial scars. It ties together three layers of history at once — the quarry's industrial past, the exhibition history of 1929/1941, and an ongoing scientific mission to conserve rare Mediterranean plant species.

Frequently asked questions

Is the Historic Botanical Garden the same as the Jardí Botànic de Barcelona? No. They are two separate gardens on the same mountain. The historic one dates to 1930 and focuses on endemic species from Iberia, the Balearic Islands, and Morocco, while the newer Jardí Botànic opened in 1999 and presents vegetation from five Mediterranean-climate regions worldwide.

When was the garden closed to visitors? It closed in 1986 due to the need to stabilize the terrain, and reopened in 2003 after restoration work was completed.

Who created the garden? Botanist Pius Font i Quer, who in 1930 began assembling the collection on the site of the former La Foixarda quarry.