The Park Built from a Fortress

Ciutadella looks like an easy place to switch off: trees, paths, fountains and people doing very normal park things. Its history is much less relaxed. The site began as a fortress imposed after 1714 to control Barcelona, then was dismantled and repeatedly rewritten as parliament, public garden, exhibition ground, scientific infrastructure and a place of civic memory. This eight-stop loop follows those changes rather than ticking off park attractions. Watch what survives, what has been repurposed and what Barcelona has chosen to remember. The park is not an escape from the city. It is one of the places where the city keeps editing itself.