Parliament of Catalonia: The Fortress Arsenal
Why is it significant?
In front of you stands a calm, symmetrical palace, and in the pond before it a marble woman lies curled up, her face hidden in her arm, as if she had cried herself to sleep. It is the quietest spot in the park, and it sits on the most painful memory in the city.
Key Facts
| Place | Parliament of Catalonia: The Fortress Arsenal |
|---|---|
| Address | Parc de la Ciutadella s/n, 08003 Barcelona, Spain |
| Geo Coordinates | 41.38800, 2.18870 |
| Part of Walk | From the 1888 Expo to the Catalan Manchester: Ciutadella Park & Poblenou, Barcelona |
| Generated | Generated |
In front of you stands a calm, symmetrical palace, and in the pond before it a marble woman lies curled up, her face hidden in her arm, as if she had cried herself to sleep. It is the quietest spot in the park, and it sits on the most painful memory in the city.
After Barcelona fell in September 1714, King Philip V ordered a citadel built right here: a huge star-shaped fortress with five bastions, designed by the military engineer Jorge Próspero de Verboom. To clear the ground, a large part of the La Ribera neighbourhood, something like a thousand homes, was demolished, and according to the chronicles the owners were made to tear down their own houses. For a century and a half the fortress's guns pointed not at foreign enemies, but at the city itself.
In 1869 the citadel was finally handed over to Barcelona and most of it was pulled down, to general rejoicing. Only a few buildings survived, and this was the biggest: the arsenal. It was refitted as a royal residence around the time of the 1888 Exposition, later served for decades as a museum of modern art, and in 1932 it became the seat of the Parliament of Catalonia.
The parliament was suppressed after the Civil War, and it returned to this building in 1980, after the restoration of democracy. So the arsenal of the fortress built to control Barcelona now houses the chamber where Catalonia's elected representatives meet. Whatever one's politics, it is one of the more remarkable reversals in European architecture.
The statue in the pond is called Desconsol, Grief, by the modernista sculptor Josep Llimona. The one you see is a copy; the original marble is kept indoors, in the national art museum on Montjuïc. Now leave the park by the eastern gate onto Carrer de Wellington, and look for a massive brick building that looks like a Roman ruin.