Magic Fountain of Montjuïc | Barcelona

Few people visiting Barcelona miss the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc, with its play of water, colour and sound. What was a great feat of engineering back in 1929 is still a major attraction today, for tourists and locals alike.

Here are the show times for the Montjuïc fountain:
7 January to 14 February: annual technical closure
15 February to 30 April, Fridays and Saturdays, 19:00–21:00. Shows at 19:00, 19:30, 20:00 and 20:30
1 May to 30 September, Thursday to Sunday, 21:00–23:30. Shows at 21:00, 21:30, 22:00, 22:30 and 23:00 (on 11, 12 and 13 July the show will run without music)
1 October to 6 January, Fridays and Saturdays, 19:00–21:00. Shows at 19:00, 19:30, 20:00 and 20:30.

To showcase the progress of Catalan industry abroad, and on the back of the success of the 1888 Universal Exhibition and the technological and urban progress it brought, in 1929 Barcelona once again hosted an international exhibition. A project on that scale needed large spaces and astonishing monuments, and Montjuïc was chosen. To decorate the spot where, until 1928, the four columns by Puig i Cadafalch had stood, a design competition was held, and it was won by Carles Buïgas with his innovative proposal for a magic fountain.

The fountain was built in less than a year, and much of its original structure still survives, although a large part of it is no longer in use. A framework of reinforced concrete and iron girders houses the various rooms beneath the fountain: the air turbine room for cooling the power generation areas, two rooms with electric generators, the control room, corridors and the area with the water jets…

While the water and light amazed the whole city, twenty people worked beneath the fountain at a frantic pace, pulling levers and pressing buttons to make sure everything went off perfectly. Thirty-five jets spread across three concentric pools, along with rotating hexagonal structures with layers of colour, brought the emblematic Montjuïc fountain to life, and still do: it is one of Barcelona’s many icons.

Over the years the fountain has been remodelled several times, and music was added in the 1980s. Today the fountain is no longer controlled from its depths but from a tower next to it, and it’s no longer run with levers but by a computer and two or three people at most. Times change, and technology keeps advancing by leaps and bounds.

Thanks to 48hopenhousebcn I was able to visit this hidden part of the fountain and be reminded that every bit of magic is the reward for hard work.

More photos of the inside of the Montjuïc fountain.

Address: Pl Carles Buïgas, 1, 08038 Barcelona
District: Sants-Montjuïc
Neighbourhood: El Poble Sec