Parc de la Ciutadella

This park is built on the ruins of the thing Barcelona hated most. After the city fell in the War of the Spanish Succession in 1714, King Philip V ordered the construction of a massive star-shaped citadel designed by military engineer Prosper Verboom to keep Barcelona under the crown's boot. An entire neighborhood — the Ribera quarter — was demolished to make room for it, displacing thousands of residents. For over 150 years, the Ciutadella was a symbol of foreign domination.

In 1869, General Juan Prim gave the citadel to the city with instructions to turn it into a park. Barcelona demolished the fortress with enthusiasm, keeping only the governor's palace, the chapel, and the arsenal building (which now houses the Catalan Parliament). Architect Josep Fontsere designed the park to host the 1888 Universal Exposition, and a young, unknown architecture student named Antoni Gaudi helped with the design of the Cascada fountain — a dramatic waterfall structure loosely inspired by the Trevi Fountain in Rome.

The Cascada was first inaugurated in 1881 without its sculptures, which were added over the next seven years. It remains one of the park's most photogenic spots, with griffins, Venus, and a dramatic Aurora riding her chariot across the top. The park also contains Barcelona's zoo, which opened in 1892 and was home to the famous albino gorilla Snowflake from 1966 until his death in 2003.

Today the park is Barcelona's green lung: 70 acres of palm trees, a boating lake, and lawns where half the city seems to gather on sunny weekends. It contains over 100 species of plants and trees that are more than a century old. The Catalan Parliament still meets in the old arsenal, making this one of the few public parks in Europe that contains a working legislature.