Montjuïc Castle Bastioned Fortress Visitor Info

About Montjuïc Castle Visitor Info

Montjuïc castle or Castell de Montjuïc is at the highest point at the top of Montjuïc hill at a height of 173 metres above sea level. The castle provides stunning 360 degree panoramic views of the Port of Barcelona and of the city where you can see important landmarks such as Sagrada Familia.

From the Montjuïc Cable Car upper station you will see multiple artilery pieces ranged at barcelona city and port as you aproach the drawbridge access road. Inside the castle are more artillery pieces. The Artilery is from a period of history starting with muzzle loaded cannons to breach loaded shell firing rail guns.

Montjuïc castle History

The castle in Montjuïc started out as a simple watch tower that was used for optical semaphore and flag based communication. The watch tower could communicate with Barcelona city and other points such as Mirador Del Semafor in El Prat de Llobregat as well as the Sant Pere de Martir summit in Collserola.

The watch tower was not militarised until the Reapers War in 1640. In 1652, the fortress, which stands on the site of a watchtower, came under royal ownership and was one of the key defence points in the War of the Spanish Succession, between 1705 and 1714.

In the 18th century, the military engineer, Juan Martín Cermeño, was commissioned to restore montjuic fortress which had been badly damaged during the war of sucession. The version of montjuic castle we see today dates from this time.

Juan Martín Cermeño also assisted with the construction of the citadel fortress, now the parc Cuitadella area of Barcelona and bagan the construction of the Sant Ferran Fortress in Figueres.

Montjuïc castle exists more to control the population of Barcelona than to protect the port. It has launched shelling on barcelona city on a number of occasions and it has also been used as a prison.

After the Spanish Civil War (1936 to 1939), Montjuïc castle was barracked by francoist soldiers and was used as a military prision. On 15th October 1940, the deposed president of the Catalan government, Lluís Companys i Jover, was executed by firing squad at the castle.

Montjuïc castle was in use as a military prison until 1960 when ownership was transfered to Barcelona city. The castle then became an army base for the spanish Army and Franco opened a weapons museum inside and allowed limited public access to the museum.

In 2007 The Spanish military stopped using it as a base and ownership was transferred to the Catalan Government. At this time the castle was in a very dilapidated state.

The Catalan Government are restoring and opening more parts of the castle to the public with most of the enclosure being accessible today.

When visiting the fortress you will note that it is surrounded by pine tree's on the city facing side. At the time of this being an active fortress, the trees did not exist, but were sloping grass hills to make ascent to the moat for attack difficult. Also the fortress needed clear sight lines for the cannons.

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