Jardins de Joan Brossa

There is a specific kind of melancholy that exists in places where people used to scream for joy. From 1966 until the late nineties, this patch of Montjuïc hillside was the Parque de Atracciones de Montjuïc—a place of rickety rollercoasters, sticky-handed kids, and the mechanical hum of rides that probably wouldn’t pass a modern safety inspection. When the park shuttered in 1998, Barcelona didn’t just bulldoze it and put up a luxury condo. They let the forest take it back, mostly. What’s left is the Jardins de Joan Brossa, a 'forest park' that feels less like a manicured botanical garden and more like a beautifully curated haunting.

You don’t come here for the roses. You come here to feel the scale of the city and the weight of its history. As you hike up from the Plaça de Dante, the air changes. The thick, humid exhaust of the city below gives way to the scent of baking pine needles and rosemary. It’s one of the best parks in Barcelona for anyone who finds the manicured perfection of the Parc de la Ciutadella a bit too claustrophobic. This is rugged terrain. It’s a place where the Mediterranean flora—pines, holm oaks, and cypress—competes for space with the remnants of the park’s past life.

Keep your eyes peeled for the survivors. Scattered throughout the greenery are bronze statues that once watched over the amusement park crowds. There’s 'Charlot,' a tribute to Charlie Chaplin, and 'El Payaso,' a weary-looking clown. Finding them feels like stumbling upon the relics of a lost civilization. They stand as silent witnesses to the millions of churros consumed and the teenage romances that blossomed on the Ferris wheel. It’s weird, it’s a little eerie, and it’s exactly the kind of soul-searching landscape that Joan Brossa, the Catalan poet and visual artist for whom the park is named, would have loved. Brossa was a man who found poetry in the mundane and the transgressive, and this park carries that DNA.

For the locals, the Jardins de Joan Brossa is the ultimate Sunday escape. If you’re looking for things to do in Montjuïc that don't involve standing in a two-hour line for a museum, this is it. On any given weekend, you’ll find families spreading out blankets for a picnic, the smell of jamón and crusty bread wafting through the trees. It’s also become synonymous with 'Brunch Electronik' (formerly Brunch in the Park), those massive outdoor electronic music parties where the hills vibrate with bass and thousands of people dance under the sun. If you’re here on a party day, expect a riot of color and noise; if you’re here on a Tuesday morning, you’ll have the place to yourself, save for a few joggers and the occasional stray cat.

Is Jardins de Joan Brossa worth it? Absolutely, but only if you’re willing to sweat a little. The paths are paved but steep, winding their way up toward the Montjuïc Castle. Along the way, you get glimpses of the Mediterranean that the tourists on La Rambla will never see—the industrial beauty of the Port de Barcelona, the giant cranes moving like prehistoric beasts, and the endless blue horizon. It’s a place to breathe, to think, and to remember that everything—even the loudest, brightest amusement park—eventually returns to the earth. Go for the views, stay for the ghosts, and bring a bottle of decent vermouth. You’re going to want to sit a while.