Description
The Magic Fountain of Montjuïc is Barcelona's grand water-and-light show: a vast fountain at the foot of Montjuïc hill, below the Palau Nacional, where jets of water, colored lights and music perform on weekend evenings. It was built for the 1929 International Exposition.
The show is the draw. The fountain sprays about 700 gallons of water a second through more than 3,600 jets, the tallest reaching about 170 feet. Lights tint the water in every color, and the music ranges from film soundtracks to classical, zarzuela and pop.
One piece is a local favorite: "Barcelona" by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé. Other nights bring themes from The Godfather, The Lord of the Rings and Gladiator, so check which show plays on the evening you go.
The setting helps. The fountain sits at the head of Avinguda Maria Cristina, near Plaça d'Espanya and the Poble Espanyol, with the domed Palau Nacional looming above the cascades.
It also fills a hole that a dictator left. In 1928 Primo de Rivera had four columns on Montjuïc knocked down: they stood for Catalonia, and that was enough. A gap was left in front of the Palau Nacional a year before the fair. The engineer Carles Buïgas filled it with water and light.
Many called his plan too ambitious, with too little time to finish. More than 3,000 workers built it, and the first show lit up on 19 May 1929, the day before the Exposition opened.
The Civil War left it badly damaged, and Buïgas himself oversaw repairs that got it working again in 1955. Music arrived in the 1980s, and the fountain was restored before the 1992 Olympics.
Buïgas had designed illuminated fountains as early as 1922, so the idea was not new to him. But nothing of this size had been tried in so little time.
And the four columns? They were rebuilt in 2010, a few meters from where they once stood.
The show is the draw. The fountain sprays about 700 gallons of water a second through more than 3,600 jets, the tallest reaching about 170 feet. Lights tint the water in every color, and the music ranges from film soundtracks to classical, zarzuela and pop.
One piece is a local favorite: "Barcelona" by Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Caballé. Other nights bring themes from The Godfather, The Lord of the Rings and Gladiator, so check which show plays on the evening you go.
The setting helps. The fountain sits at the head of Avinguda Maria Cristina, near Plaça d'Espanya and the Poble Espanyol, with the domed Palau Nacional looming above the cascades.
It also fills a hole that a dictator left. In 1928 Primo de Rivera had four columns on Montjuïc knocked down: they stood for Catalonia, and that was enough. A gap was left in front of the Palau Nacional a year before the fair. The engineer Carles Buïgas filled it with water and light.
Many called his plan too ambitious, with too little time to finish. More than 3,000 workers built it, and the first show lit up on 19 May 1929, the day before the Exposition opened.
The Civil War left it badly damaged, and Buïgas himself oversaw repairs that got it working again in 1955. Music arrived in the 1980s, and the fountain was restored before the 1992 Olympics.
Buïgas had designed illuminated fountains as early as 1922, so the idea was not new to him. But nothing of this size had been tried in so little time.
And the four columns? They were rebuilt in 2010, a few meters from where they once stood.