Montjuïc faces its third major transformation in a century. Since Roman times, the mountain has been a kind of catch-all where activities have been located that have mortgaged its access and urban planning. Quarries, a cemetery, a castle and restrictions for military reasons, shantytowns… A global planning of Montjuïc was not undertaken until the celebration of the 1929 International Exposition. Then came the 1992 Games. Today, about to commemorate the centenary of the exhibition, Barcelona has launched a new plan to integrate the mountain into the city.
The landscape of Montjuïc will change substantially in the coming years. What will undoubtedly have the most impact among citizens will be the change of skin of Plaza Espanya, which is basically a large roundabout that distributes traffic between Gran Via, Paral·lel, Tarragona street, Maria Cristina Avenue and the Sants road. A hell for pedestrians, who must overcome several traffic lights with their waits to go from one point to another and which is only relieved by the tunnel with which Gran Via overcomes the square.
Cerdà already foresaw this point as the communication hub with Baix Llobregat. It was also the entrance to the 1929 exhibition through the Venetian towers. Now, the plan is to turn the square around and turn it into a pedestrian-friendly axis that naturally leads to a Maria Cristina Avenue freed from cars that aspires to be the great citizen access to Montjuïc and its cultural, sports and congress facilities, as well as its landscaped and environmental value spaces.
The urbanization of the mountain a hundred years ago was planned within the framework of noucentisme, that cultural and political movement that the Mancomunitat de Catalunya and its president, Enric Prat de la Riba, adopted as their own. Thus, Montjuïc was designed under the canons of the garden city. It is, in fact, a monument to noucentisme.
But it must be said that to the aforementioned activities that have mortgaged the planning of the mountain, other mortgages consolidated in the last century have been added. The buildings preserved in the old international exhibition grounds are a clear example. Initially conceived for an ephemeral life, a good part of them have survived the event. This is the case of the Fira pavilions, the Museu Arqueològic, the Institut Cartográfic, the current headquarters of the Teatre Lliure, the Poble Espanyol, the Grec and, especially, the Palau Nacional, which houses the MNAC.
When it was decided to convert Montjuïc into the Olympic ground zero, the demolition of the Palau Nacional was proposed, which was firmly opposed by the then mayor, Pasqual Maragall. In return, a millionaire investment had to be faced to consolidate the building, since, like the rest of the 1929 pavilions, they lacked foundations due to their ephemeral nature. Precisely, the MNAC and its expansion in the Victòria Eugènia pavilion will be one of the fronts of the third great transformation of Montjuïc.
But there will be more. The Fira buildings will also improve and renew their appearance. There will be housing in a new neighborhood of Poble-sec gained from the fair pavilions. The Palau d'Esports will come back to life. A significant investment will also be made in the Anella Olímpica, modernizing the Stadium and so that the esplanade has greater citizen use. The annexed room of the Palau Sant Jordi will also be transformed so that it can host events for 8,000 people. The great icing on the cake will be, although beyond the centenary, the arrival of the metro, finally, to the mountain, something that was highly demanded in its day by Maragall, which the nationalist Generalitat of the time prevented.
With this package of actions, the aim is to put an end to what we could call Montjuïc's hodgepodge planning and for it to stop living with its back to Barcelona. Elements that have been added in recent decades, such as the Fundació Miró or the amusement park that existed in its day, were located outside of an integral planning for the mountain.
The question now is whether this third transformation of Montjuïc will finally solve its relationship problems with the city. Time will tell, but what cannot be denied is that the vast urban renewal planned from Plaza Espanya to the Olympic Ring can be a great opportunity.