Cementiri de Montjuïc

That towering cypress tree to your right... it's marking the grave of a man who once governed Cuba, yet became the very first soul laid to rest in this hillside city of the dead when Cementiri de Montjuïc opened its gates on March 17th, 1883. José Fonrodona Riva, mayor of Matanzas, traded Caribbean heat for Barcelona's Mediterranean breeze in death, beginning what would become home to over ONE MILLION souls across these 56 terraced hectares. Behind you, that monumental staircase wasn't built just for grand entrances... architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner designed it as a modernist masterpiece that perfectly frames the harbor below, where ships once carried Barcelona's industrial fortunes. The cemetery's entire layout actually mirrors the wealthy Eixample district spreading behind us... because the same families who built those elegant modernist mansions commissioned equally stunning mausoleums here, creating Europe's ONLY collection of antique hearses still housed within these walls. As you wander these English garden-style paths, you'll discover Joan Miró's surprisingly simple tomb, but also works by Josep Puig i Cadafalch and Josep M. Jujol hidden among the elaborate Gothic and Art Nouveau monuments. This necropolis broke revolutionary ground in 1883... one of Spain's first cemeteries to reserve sacred space for Protestants and Jews alongside Catholics, transforming death itself into a democratic art form overlooking the endless sea.