Barcelona

These gardens, dedicated to the poet Eduard Marquina, grew out of an old amusement park on a large estate owned by the Bertrand-Girona family, which opened in 1912 and ran until 1929. In 1917 the estate was included in the provision for Barcelona’s green spaces and therefore affected by that. When the amusement park finally closed, its owners reached an agreement with the City Council under which the central part of the land would be handed over in exchange for permission to develop the rest.

Nicolau M. Rubió i Tudurí came up with the idea of a garden, basically for local residents. But that did not come about for decades, during which time Turó Park was the only green space in the area and one of the few in the city. Over the years, despite the steady increase in the number of green spaces around Barcelona, this park has continued to have a use that goes beyond a purely local one.

Turó Park is rich in species and exceptional specimens of trees, not just for their size but for their age too. It has a holm oak wood, with an understorey of shrubs and climbing plants
typical of the Mediterranean, such as laurustinus. Other notable plants there include magnolias, peppercorn trees, Himalayan cedars, lime trees, plane trees and African lilies. There are also large specimens of date palms, Canary date palms and fan palms as well as sweet bay and oleander. The perimeter flowerbeds contain rose bushes and aromatic plants.

Sculptures are an important feature of Turó Park. There is one by Apel·les Fenosa, dedicated to Pau Casals; another by Josep Calarà, dedicated to Francesc Viñas; Un Oiseau (A Bird), by Jean Michel Folan; and, on the grass, Eloïsa Cerdan’s La ben plantada (The Shapely Woman), a bronze sculpture that pays homage to the writer Eugeni d’Ors. Dominating the axis of the magnolia flowerbed is Joan Borrell i Nicolau’s Biga de la Font de l’Aurora (Aurora Fountain Chariot), a bronze structure representing a classical chariot pulled by horses, with a rose-bush flowerbed in front.

Art has a literary presence in this green space too. You can visit it by following a poetic route, with Federico García Lorca, Fernando Pessoa, Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath, Walt Whitman, Narcís Comadira, Salvador Espriu, Joan Vinyoli and Alfonsina Storni as your guides.

If you go into the park through the main entrance, you will be greeted by a sculpture dedicated to the great cellist, Pau Casals. It is on an oval-shaped square, at the end of which, in the surrounding railings, you will find as many gates as there are paths for entering the park: the main one, in the centre, with two perimeter paths on either side, all marked out by over fifty nicely pruned holm oaks.

The perimeter paths on the left take you to a large children’s play area and, a little further on, to two of the park’s loveliest spots: the pond and the grass. The pond is oval shaped, covered in European white water-lilies that flower in the spring. Spread out above it is a large expanse of grass, dominated by majestic lime trees.

It you turn to the right you will find Plaça del Teatret with a drinks kiosk for taking a refreshing break, a reminder of the open-air theatre that ran in the park for many years. This is a cool, shaded spot, ideal for a rest, in the heart of the gardens.