Parc de la Ciutadella, Urban park in Sant Pere district, Barcelona, Spain.
Parc de la Ciutadella is a 31-hectare green space in the Sant Pere, Santa Caterina i la Ribera district of Barcelona, featuring a lake, wide avenues, and a monumental cascade fountain. The fountain, designed by Josep Fontserè, displays rock formations, waterfalls, and statues, with the young Antoni Gaudí assisting in its construction.
After the War of Spanish Succession, Philip V built Europe's largest fortress here starting in 1714 to control Barcelona. The city demolished the citadel in 1869 and transformed the grounds into a public park, which opened for the 1888 World's Fair.
The name recalls the military citadel that once occupied this site, while today families row on the lake or picnic on the lawns. Sculptures by Catalan artists line the pathways, and the Catalan Parliament meets in a neoclassical building at the park's edge.
The main entrance sits near the Arc de Triomf metro station on Line 1, just a short walk away. The grounds are flat and easy for walkers to navigate, with paths running through tree-lined avenues and around the central lake.
The Castell dels Tres Dragons was designed in 1887 by Lluís Domènech i Montaner as a café for the World's Fair, blending Moorish arches with modernist brickwork. The building later served as the Zoological Museum and now stands as one of the earliest examples of Catalan modernism.
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