Barcelona

Putxet is a 178-metre-high hill that extends from Vallcarca to Sant Gervasi. Despite talk of a chapel in the 17th century, the first-known traces of any population there only date back to 1870, when Barcelona’s bourgeoisie began to have their villas built there to escape the urban conditions of old Barcelona. The land was part of the old Torre Espanya estate, which belonged to the Morató family. In 1917 it was included in the green-area plans, which kept the city’s hills as natural spaces, but it was gradually urbanised. By the time the City Council made a compulsory purchase of the land now occupied by the present gardens in 1970 the old, originally Mediterranean, wood had become barren land, used as a stone quarry from the first third of the 20th century. The wood taken from the pine grove at the top of the hill was an important source of fuel during the Spanish Civil War.