Parks and gardens of Barcelona

The parks and gardens of Barcelona cover an area of 2,784 hectares.^{[Note 1]} Its management depends on the Municipal Institute of Parks and Gardens of Barcelona (in Catalan: Institut Municipal de Parcs i Jardins de Barcelona), a body under the Barcelona City Council. Since the 19th century —and especially in the 20th century— Barcelona has been committed to the development of green areas in the city, and is currently one of the European cities with the most roadside trees (150,000 units).^[1] In 2001 the Institute of Parks and Gardens received ISO 14001 certification for the conservation and management of green spaces and public roadside trees.^[2]

Gardening in Barcelona has had an uneven evolution over time: the first significant project, the Labyrinth of Horta park, dates back to the 18th century; the first large public park in Barcelona, the Citadel, was opened in the 19th century; but most of the green areas in the city date from the 20th century, a period in which public gardening in the Catalan capital was given a great boost. In this last century gardening has developed mainly in four phases: the first planning carried out by Léon Jaussely in his plan of connections and by Nicolau Maria Rubió i Tudurí, author of an ambitious plan of concentric green areas throughout the city, from Montjuïc to the Besòs; the post-war period saw a setback in the creation of green spaces, mainly due to real estate speculation that led to an increase in the population due to immigration, as well as the priority given to road traffic due to the increase in the number of cars. With the arrival of democracy there was a new impulse to the creation of landscaped spaces, with a predominance of architectural design and a multipurpose sense of space, which added to the plant element service areas and leisure and recreational facilities for the population; finally, towards the end of the century a more naturalistic trend emerged, more in line with the new ideas of ecology and environmental sustainability, with concern not only for parks and large green areas but also for the placement of groves in streets and promenades of the city.^[3]

Depending on their characteristics, Barcelona's parks and gardens are divided into several typologies: "historical", those created before 1950, such as the Parc del Laberint d'Horta, the Parc de la Ciutadella, Parc Güell, the gardens of the University of Barcelona, those of Laribal and those of the Palau Reial de Pedralbes; "thematic", which are dedicated to a certain type of plant species, such as the Parc de Cervantes, dedicated to roses, the Mossèn Costa i Llobera gardens, specialized in cacti and succulents, and the Mossèn Cinto Verdaguer gardens, dedicated to aquatic, bulbous and rhizomatous plants; "urban" are the most common type, parks and gardens located in the city and open to all public, with services and multipurpose spaces for the enjoyment of all citizens; and "forest", green spaces of wide extension generally located in areas bordering the city, such as the Sierra de Collserola and the mountain of Montjuïc.^[4]

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