The Ultimate Guide to Visit Montjuic Mountain from top to bottom (2022)
Barcelona what to see: “MONTJUIC”
If this is your first time in Barcelona, I would recommend you to visit this beautiful mountain, if you are planning to stay in town for at least 3 days. Why? Check my 2 days in Barcelona Youtube Video, and you’ll see there’s a lot to be seen with 2 days.
What to do in Montjuic Mountain?
Mainly you’ll find great views, really gorgeous gardens from Barcelona second world exposition in 1929 & the olimpic ring from olimpic games in 1992. This is the list of all the things to do in Montjuic Mountain from top to botton, in order of appearance:
- Montjuic Castle
- Montjuic Slides
- Hotel Miramar
- Aeri del Port
- Jardines de Mossen i Costa i Llobera
- Mirador de l’Alcalde
- Montjuic Cable Car
- Jardins de Joan brossa
- Jardins de Mossèn Cinto Verdaguer
- Piscinas municipales
- Montjuïc Funicular Railway
- Fundación Joan Miró
- Jardines del Laribal
- Teatro Griego
- Palauet Albeniz
- Joan Maragall Garden
- Umbráculo Garden
- Botanico
- Botánico histórico
- Palau Sant Jordi
- Estadio Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium
- Plaza de europa anillo olimpico Montjuïc Communications Tower
- Cementerio del Montjuic
- MNAC
- Fuente Magica
- Las Arenas
- Poble Español
- Mies van der Rohe Pavilion
From my point of view, there are 2 ways to start exploring this mountain:
- From Montjuic Castle on top of the mountain, coming by bus/ fonicular railway/ or cable car
- or from Miramar Hotel also from the top but coming from the port, with the Barcelona port cable car
- You start from the top, and go down the mountain by feet. Don’t recommend to do it the other way around.
Montjuic Castle
This fort, thanks to the privileged location on top of the mountain, with 173 metres above sea level, offers 360º views of the city & the harbour.
- Price is 9€
- It’s opened everyday
- From March 1 to October 31 from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. (box office closes at 7:30 p.m.)
- From November 1 to February 28 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (box office closes at 5:30 p.m.)
How to get to Montjuic Castle?
My recommendation to visit this mountain is to get to the top first:
- Bus 150 from Plaza España or Paralell avenue
- or Fonicular of Montjuic from Paralell metro station L2/L3 and then the bus 150
- The cable car service begins in Avinguda Miramar where the Funicular and leaves visitors in front of the Castle as the last stop.
- Coming here with the hop on hop off bus tour is also a good choice. You have many other stops in the different attractions of the mountain.
- Then go all the way down walking until you get to MNAC, National Museum of Art of Catalunya & the Magic Fountan, going through all the places I will mention now:
Montjuic Slides
You will find two fairly long metal slides united by a platform, right in the middle of nature, after visiting the Castle. Check the with google maps!
Aeri del Port & Hotel Miramar
How to get to Miramar hotel?
The other way to start the visit of Montjuic is to get to Hotel Miramar by Aeri del Port instead of Montjuic Castle.
The Cable Car was designed in 1926 in order to connect the 1929 exhibition with its maritime section. It connects the San Sebastián tower in Barceloneta with the Miramar station, located on the Montjuic mountain. The estimated duration of the trip is 8 minutes one way and the maximum capacity of each cabin is 19 people. Total distance is 1300mts. Views are incredible!
- One way 11.00 €
- Full ticket 16.50 €
- From San Sebastián Tower in Barceloneta beach
Jardines de Mossen i Costa i Llobera
Mirador de l’Alcalde
If you start the way down the hill, coming from Hotel Miramar or from Montjuic castle, the next garden is called Mirador de l’Alcalde. It’s a belvedere overlooking the sea and the city which spectacular 180º panoramic views. The Montjuïc Cable Car (not Aeri del Port), stops here and at the castle, which stands just a few metres above the Mirador.
Jardins de Joan brossa
Here, but 30 years ago, was Montjuïc Amusement Park. Now it’s just a large green space, so if you miss this park, you won’t be missing too much!
Art is represented in the gardens by poetry and sculpture. They are named after the poet Joan Brossa, in line with the tradition of dedicating Montjuïc’s gardens to Catalan poets.
As for sculptures, four have been preserved from the old amusement park:
- Joaquim Ros i Sabaté’s El pallasso (The Clown, 1972), which depicts Charlie Rivel lifting his famous chair;
- Josep Cañas’ Carmen Amaya (1966), a tribute to this Barcelona-born flamenco dancer;
- Núria Tortras’s Charlot (1972), with Charlie Chaplin climbing on top of a globe
- and Nicolau Ortiz’s Joaquim Blume (1966), depicting a gymnast exercising with Olympic rings in the background.
- The first is the Damm kiosk, the brewery’s bar restaurant, which soon became the amusement park’s most popular and iconic circular building. It has been restored and is currently a venue for holding celebrations and conventions.
- The second, the amusement park’s Bar Fanta, is the Para-Sol building, made of concrete and curiously shaped like an umbrella. Now it is a decorative feature of the gardens.
Jardins de Mossèn Cinto Verdaguer
The Mossèn Cinto Verdaguer Gardens are by far one of the most beautiful ones in Barcelona. A combination of bulbous, rhizome and aquatic plants gives them an exceptional range of colours. It has a beautiful lake and in the upper area is where the most important part of the aquatic plant collection is concentrated. They are found in some thirty, small, interconnected ponds that are distributed from one end of a long staircase to the other.
If you don’t want to go to the top…
Start your journey here:
Montjuïc Funicular Railway
- Paral·lel, which links up with metro lines L2 and L3,
- and Parc de Montjuïc, located on the mountain, which links up with the cable car to reach the top of Montjuïc and access the castle.
- You can also grab the 150 bus from the Fonicular station that also goes to the castle, in case you are afraid of heights.
- In addition to the castle, you can continue the visit towards Fundació Joan Miró right in front or in case you are here during the summer months, stop for a beer where the Montjuic Municipal swimming pools bar which is also right in front.
Montjuic Cable Car
The route starts at the Parc Montjuïc stop, right where the Fonicular of Montjuic. The cable car goes directly to Montjuïc Castle, with no stops in between. The return journey includes an optional stop at Mirador de l’Alcalde or Mayor’s viewpoint and ends at Parc Montjuïc. Its 750 meters of route allow you to gaze at beautiful views from Sagrada Familia, the Camp Nou or the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc, culminating your journey in the Montjüic Castle, on the top of a mountain.
Montjuic Municipal swimming pools
Fundación Joan Miró
The Fundació Joan Miró was created by Miró himself, at first principally with works from his own private collection. The Fundació opened to the public on 10 June 1975 and has since become a dynamic centre in which Joan Miró’s work coexists with cutting-edge contemporary art. The Fundació is located in a building designed by Josep Lluís Sert, making it one of the few museums anywhere in the world in which the complicity between artist and architect underpins the dialogue between the works and the space that houses them.
- General tickets €13
- Opened from Tuesday to Sunday
Palauet Albeniz
The gardens of the palace, Joan Maragall Garden, are named after Spanish poet Joan Maragall. The original gardens were designed by Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier with the assistance of Spanish landscape architect Nicolás María Rubió Tudurí. I call them Little Versailles Gardens, they make me remember the lovely gardens in France.
- Weekends & holidays from 10am to 3pm
- Free Admission
Laribal Gardens
To connect the upper part of the park with the Jardins del Teatre Grec, Forestier designed a series of steps that took their inspiration from the ones in the Jardins del Generalife, with water flowing down the bannisters, pools with fountain jets on the landings and stone benches for resting on, enjoying the fresh air and sound of the water. In fact, water is the essence of these gardens, with their ponds and pools.
Teatre Grec Gardens
The Umbracle Gardens
Barcelona Botanical Garden
- Opened Everyday
- General ticket: € 5
- Combined admission Museu de Ciències Naturals – Jardí Botànic: € 7
- Combined admission Castell Montjuïc – Jardí Botànic: € 10
Barcelona Historic Botanical Garden
Palau Sant Jordi
Lluís Companys Olympic Stadium
With its current capacity of 60,713 seats, Estadi Lluís Companys is the 5th largest stadium in Spain and the 2nd largest in Catalonia.
Olimpic Ring & Plaça d’Europa
The construction project of the Olympic Ring took place as a result of the city of Barcelona’s candidacy for the 1992 Olympic Games, taking advantage of the space and the possibilities offered by the Montjuic mountain, following the idea projected by Puig i Cadafalch for the urbanization of the International Exposition of 1929.
The major facilities consist of the Olympic Stadium, the Palau Sant Jordi sports hall, the telecommunications tower designed by Santiago Calatrava, the National Physical Education Institute (INEFC) and the Picornell swimming pools. The Joan Antoni Samarach Olympic and Sports Museum is also located in the Olympic Ring. The original plan was designed around the main square, Plaça d’Europa and the Olympic Stadium.
Montjuic Cementery
The cementery was inaugurated on March 17, 1883. I would only visit it if you have a car. Is too far away! This enclosure came to replace the problem that Barcelona had with the lack of space in the small neighbourhood cemeteries scattered around the city. The cemetery is located on a slope of the Montjuic mountain, and is divided into 14 sectors. The cemetery has a large number of tombs and pantheons of great artistic value.
Mies van der Rohe Pavilion
The Barcelona Pavilion designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lilly Reich, was the German Pavilion for the 1929 International Exposition in Barcelona, Spain. This building was used for the official opening of the German section of the exhibition. It is an important building in the history of modern architecture, known for its simple form and its spectacular use of extravagant materials, such as marble, red onyx and travertine. The same features of minimalism and spectacular can be applied to the furniture specifically designed for the building, including the Barcelona chair. It has inspired many important modernist buildings.
Poble Español
Poble Espanyol, or Spanish village, is an open-air architectural museum in Barcelona, approximately 400 metres away from the fountains of Montjuïc. Built for the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition, the museum consists of 117 full-scale buildings replicated from different places in the Iberian Peninsula, joined forming a small town recreating urban atmospheres of disparate places in Spain. It also contains a theater, restaurants, artisan workshops and a museum of contemporary art.
The idea was promoted by the Catalan architect Puig Cadafalch and the project was realized by architects Francesc Folguera and Ramon Reventós, art critic Miquel Utrillo and painter Xavier Nogués. The four professionals visited over 600,000 sites in Spain to collect examples as an attempt to synthesize characteristics that might be attributed to the Iberian Peninsula.
- General ticket 9€
-
Poble Espanyol + MNAC 20€
What to do in Montjuic Mountain if you have only a few hours?
Montjuic MUST SEE:
MNAC – National Museum of Art of Catalunya
The Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya is a museum of Catalan visual art situated on Montjuïc hill near Pl Espanya. The museum is especially notable for its outstanding collection of romanesque church paintings, and for Catalan art and design from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including modernisme and noucentisme. The museum is housed in the Palau Nacional, a huge, Italian-style building dating to 1929.
The Oval Hall was reopened in 1992 on the occasion of the Olympic Games. The Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya was officially inaugurated on 16 December 2004. It is one of the largest museums in Spain. The view around sunset time, is really amazing. I would combine its visit, at least from the outside, with the Magic Fountain light & water show.
- General ticket 13€
- Winter opening times: October to April, Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm; Sundays and public holidays, 10am to 3pm.
- Summer opening times: May to September, Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 8pm; Sundays and public holidays, 10am to 3pm.
- Mondays closed, except public holidays. Monday public holidays 2017: April 2nd, May 21st and September 24th
Magic Fountain
Las Arenas Shopping Centre
How to get to Montjuic?
- Metro L2/L1 to Plaza Espanya
My tips to visit Montjuic
- If you want to visit the whole mountain, you will need like 6 hours or more.
- Bring a picnic and take advantage of the gardens, there’s only a few bars in the area.
- I would start definitely from the top and would finish where the MNAC for sunset time, to avoid a big uphill.
- Check the magic fountain timetable so that after the visit you can enjoy the show.
- Take your own water bottle and re fill it in the fountains.
- If you’re taking the Montjuic cable car or Aeri del Port, get a one way ticket (cheaper) then walk down.
- Bring sunglasses and comfortable shoes!
Hope this help you to get around in Barcelona! Please leave your comments below if you have any questions or any better idea 🙂
