Barcelona Weekend Break

Poble Espanyol de Montjuic

Poble Espanyol de Montjuic is a model village on a hill suburb of Barcelona city, but it is different to any other village that you are ever likely to encounter. The village lies to the south of the city at an elevation of 192 metres and looks directly down at Barcelona city centre.

Poble Espanyol de Montjuic was purpose built for Barcelona's 1929 International Exhibition and represents what was perceived as being the archetypal Spanish town. The village takes its inspiration from the whole of Spain and has a ground area of just under 50,000 square metres and includes 117 different buildings.

The aim of Poble Espanyol de Montjuic was to display the characteristics and aesthetics of different building styles from the country's geographic regions and architectural history. No less than 1,600 separate towns and villages were visited and photographed during research for the village's design and all of the many different building styles are blended together in what was intended to be a seamless mix of Spanish heritage.

To make things even more interesting (and impressive), the complete model town is built on a scale of one to one, with every building, street and plaza being full size. In other words you can walk around and, in some cases, into the buildings as if it were a genuine living village.

Originally the Poble Espanyol de Montjuic was only intended to exist until the end of the exhibition, but because of its success and status as “the blue print” of a perfect Spanish town, it remains to this day.

The project was undertaken by a number of architects including the “modernist” Puig i Cadafalch, Ramon Reventos and Francesc Folguera.

The town sees a beautiful main square or alameda and numerous buildings taken from fifteen of Spain's autonomous communities including, Andalusia, Asturias, Castilla i Leon, Galicia, Madrid, Murcia and the Balearic Islands. Most agree that this artificial village is a sight worth seeing and the only opportunity you will ever get to see so many varying style and designs in one location.

Within Poble Espanyol de Montjuic ou will find restaurants, cafes, gift shops, activities and displays.

Tourist information

Also on and around the hill of Montjuic you will find the Parc de Montjuic, a number of museums and part of Barcelona's 1992 Olympic Games complex. This area is a real tourist hub.

The area of Montjuic can be reached from the city by several different means of transport including train and cable car and you can of course walk, if not up to the village, the route back down.

Admission to the village is by “village pass” at a cost of 30 euros and this gives entry to 2 adults and 2 children. An audio guide (in English) is a further 3 euros.