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Montjuïc Castle
120 cannons once lined these stone bastions you're standing beneath, making Montjuïc Castle the most heavily armed fortress in 18th-century Barcelona. This hulking trapezoidal structure rising 173 meters above the port wasn't always here though... it replaced an ancient watchtower in 1640 when Catalans desperately needed protection during the Reapers' War. Here's what blows my mind - Napoleon's army captured this impregnable fortress without firing a single shot because the Spanish guards were literally ordered not to fight back! But the castle's darkest chapter happened right here in the Santa Eulàlia moat behind you, where Catalan President Lluís Companys faced a firing squad in 1940. As you walk through that neoclassical entrance bridge ahead, designed by engineer Juan Martín Cermeño in 1751, you're entering what locals call Barcelona's most controversial building - a place that defended the city, then turned its cannons against it three different times when political winds shifted.
Did You Know?
- Montjuïc Castle is built on the site of an ancient watchtower, with its origins dating back to 1640 during the Catalan Revolt (Guerra dels Segadors), when a small fort was rapidly constructed for defense—marking the beginning of the hill’s transformation into a key military stronghold that would shape Barcelona’s history for centuries.
- The castle’s current star-shaped design, complete with four bastions and a moat, is the work of 18th-century military engineer Juan Martín Cermeño, who modernized the fortress after the War of the Spanish Succession; his upgrades included innovative features like toilets and water tanks, rare for military architecture of the era.
- Montjuïc Castle has a dark but significant legacy as a site of repression: it was used as a prison for political detainees during the Spanish Civil War and Franco’s dictatorship, and it was here that Lluís Companys, president of the Catalan government, was executed by firing squad in 1940—today, the castle stands as a powerful symbol of both Barcelona’s resilience and its painful historical struggles.