Palau de les Heures, 19th-century palace in Horta-Guinardó, Barcelona, Spain.
Palau de les Heures is a palace in the Horta-Guinardó district of Barcelona, designed to look like a French chateau with four cylindrical towers topped by cone-shaped roofs. The building sits on a slope and is surrounded by three garden levels that step down as terraces.
The palace was built between 1894 and 1898 by architect August Font i Carreras for the industrialist Josep Gallart Forgas, who had made his fortune abroad. Over the 20th century the building changed hands several times and eventually became part of the University of Barcelona.
The facade sculptures called "Les Heures" by Josep Campeny represent the hours of the day and gave the building its name. Looking closely at the facade, visitors can pick out each figure carved into the stone.
The palace is in the Montbau area of northern Barcelona and is easy to reach by public transport. As the grounds are spread across several terraced levels on a hillside, sturdy footwear makes it easier to move between the garden areas.
The gardens were laid out following French and Italian Renaissance models, which was unusual for Barcelona at that time. Each terrace features plants rarely seen elsewhere in the city, including magnolias, palms, and orange trees growing side by side.
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