Admission fee to Montjuïc

Visitors to Montjuïc castle can no longer see the fortress for free but have to pay a €5 entrance fee, as from 1 March.

The castle, which was handed over to the city by the Spanish minister of defence in 2008, is now being transformed into a cultural and exhibition centre. In the next two years Barcelona is to spend €9 million on its remodernisation and is transferring its management to a private company.

The exhibition now showing in the castle, Barcelona Postwar, covers the post civil war period, from the entry of General Franco’s troops into the city in 1939 to the fall of the fascist mayor, Miquel Mateu i Pla in 1945. The 250 documents from the city’s archives are divided into sections covering three underlying themes; the hispanisation of the city, the establishment of Spanish fascism and the Catholic indoctrination.

The hill of Montjuïc overlooks the harbour and has been the site of several fortifications. The present one dates to the 17^th century with 18^th-century additions and was used as a political prison and place of execution right up until 1940. From 1963 until its transfer to the city in 2008 it was used as a military museum.