Guinardò Park (Barcelona)

 park, panoramic view

On the slopes of Turó de la Rovira, leading down to Avinguda de la Mare de Déu de Montserrat, you will find one of the largest, most diverse parks in Barcelona. Woodland lives alongside elegant gardens of pruned shrubs with water also playing a major role. At the foot of the park, right by the street, a happy child plays with a hoop in the middle of a sea of flowers.

Parc del Guinardó has three very different parts: one is a city park that acts as the anteroom to this large green zone, another is the historic part of the park and, right at the top, the lush vegetation of the woods. The garden terraces and pine groves make this one of the most tranquil and refreshing green spaces in the city.

Barcelona has this park thanks to the zoning laws laid down at the beginning of the 20th century. The estate, overlooking the sea, became municipal property in 1910.

The city part

This part is the result of the redesign of the lower slopes of the park carried out in 1977, which extended the park and linked it with Plaça del Nen de la Rutlla, where there is the main entrance to the park. There are terraces on various levels, separated by embankments covered by grass, shrubs and trees.

This area of the park, right beside the street, invites the passer-by to stop a while and sit on a bench under the shade of the massive Aleppo pines. In the summer, Rosewood trees brim with yellow flowers that spill and carpet the ground; a wondrous sight that the city's gardeners are often reluctant to sweep up.

Mulberries trees, elms and olive trees also adorn this part of the park. And right in front, the large ornamental garden around the statue of the boy that gives the square its name, reminding us of a time when all a child needed to play with was a simple hoop and a stick to make it turn.

The historic part

This is a lush garden, of major historic value, created by Jean Claude Nicolas Forestier in collaboration with Nicolau M. Rubió i Tudorí. Rugged in design, it follows the course of a stream. Beginning at La Font del Cuento, it climbs the hill along terraces linked by paths and steps, reaching a small reservoir where you can enjoy the first of the many magnificent views over Barcelona that Parc del Guinardó offers the visitor.

Half way up the hill you see small stone retaining walls cut by channels that carry water from the reservoir above, creating waterfalls and ponds where water life abounds. Near the water you find Lobelia laxiflora, a plant with showy, bright red flowers that are quite rare in Barcelona.

Very well-groomed hedges border the paths. These consist of luxurious shrubs such as pittosporums, laurel and oleander, and aromatic herbs such as rosemary and lavender. There are also a great many carob tress, cypresses, cedars, mimosas and holm oaks, the majority large in size.

La Font del Cuento

The entrance to the historic part of the park contains a spring that Forestier integrated into his design. Above this, Rubió set some old stone inscriptions that had stood over the entrance to a primitive mine since 1739. As the flow from the spring was normally quite slow, people would break into conversation, while they waited for their bottles to fill, and tell each other tales. Young couples would also meet near the spring, so the wags would claim that the spring was a source of many a tale. For many years, the spring had a strong following in the neighbourhood.

The woods

With their steep sides, the woods are crowned by an impressive grove that encircles the area above the historic zone, like some amphitheatre, and stretches down the hill. The woods are criss-crossed with paths, where it is common to find people out for a walk, playing with their dogs or on a bicycle. There is room for everyone.

The choice is yours, the main attractions of this part of the park are a grove of cedars and the two thousand pines planted forty years ago around the Mirador de la Mitja Lluna viewpoint, a wide esplanade next to the square of the same name. As the park is quite steep and a job to climb, this is a good starting point for those who would rather visit it on the way down. A bus, number 28, drops you here.

If the view of Barcelona from Mirador de la Mitja Lluna is spectacular, the one you get from Mirador de Sant Joan is no less impressive. On a clear day you can see from Sant Pere Martir to Montjuïc and Montgat. As the woods are quite high above the city, the best time to come here in the summer is in the evening, to enjoy the breeze and have a light supper in the picnic area.

Did you know...

The name Guinardó is linked to an old farmhouse standing nearby: Mas Guinardó, currently a community centre for the district. There are a great many other stories behind the name, according to Joan Corbera i Palau, of the Guinardó History Group at the Cooperativa Cultural Rocaguinarda.

The origin of the word Guinardó is, most likely, guinarda, fox in old Catalan. So Mas Guinardó would be named after this intelligent animal. However, this is not the only explanation.

When Miguel de Cervantes came to Barcelona, he stayed in this farmhouse, which seems to have belonged to the famous bandit Perot Rocaguinarda. The name of Guinardó may have come from this historical character.

There are tales of the presence of long, labyrinthine, secret passages that allowed Rocaguinarda to disappear when besieged by the Viceroy's troops, leading from the farmhouse to inside the walled city of Barcelona. There are even those who claim to have walked some part of these.

Rocaguinarda, the son of Oristà, and known as Perot lo Lladre (Perot the Thief), attained such fame that even Cervantes mentioned him in Don Quixote. He was a member of the Nyerros faction, at a time - the 16th century - when banditry had more to do with belonging to a faction, or "band", than with theft. Rather than being considered criminals, due to confrontations with feudal lords, they were instrumental in settling disputes between influential figures of the day, to disappear when there was a need for a common front during the Guerra dels Segadors (The Catalan Revolt, 1640-1659).



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