Until last week I didn’t know of its existence and yet it is the oldest and probably most beautiful park Barcelona has. It was built in the 18th Century by the architect Domenico Bagutti as a project to landscape the property of Antoni Desvalls. Later in 1971 it was handed over to the city council, as the Desvalls family was not able to maintain such a complex garden anymore.
When we arrived on a Sunday afternoon we were pleased to find out that entrance was free on Sundays and Wednesdays but we were not allowed to bring in our sandwiches inside, which we had hoped to devour in the romantic scenery we expected to find. Armed with two tickets telling us to honour the park as a museum and to not take longer than one hour to view the park, as only a limited amount of people are allowed into the park at once, we headed up towards the labyrinth.
On our way we happened to notice a commotion around a gate with many kids uttering ahhhs and oohhhs. Four peacocks wandering through a subsection of the park, one of which is showing off his feathers in all their splendour.

 
Shortly afterwards we saw the entrance to the labyrinth with over two metre high, well maintained hedges leading into a maze of narrow paths. Inching our way forwards, always trying to remember the way we came we embarked on our search for the centre of the maze. And by luck or intuition we didn’t hit one dead end and managed to find the statue of Eros in the centre without too many problems. The gleeful looks on the children’s faces when they had managed to find the centre of the maze was worth gold. But the way back was not as easy, especially as some kids at the top of the hill overlooking the maze were determined to give us wrong directions. “No! not that way! Take the next right! No! Left! Back again!” the game continued, and we must have hit at least four dead ends before we managed to get out of the labyrinth. By now in merry pursuit of the little devils who by now had decided it better to make a swift retreat into the grounds of the park.
 
The Park itself spreads over 9ha with the labyrinth, surrounding forest and the romantic gardens. The romantic gardens were added onto the park at a later stage in the 19th century. Built with simplicity in mind you won’t encounter flowers of many colours but a lot of green plants and trees, stone walls and lush ferns giving the place the look of an overgrown ruin. Although the romantic gardens have a enchanting touch, the “waterfall” without any water and the not so romantic “romantic fountain” show a certain neglect of the park in the winter time. As the rest of the park is well maintained we presumed it to be a seasonal neglect and hope that the management had not taken the concept of an abandoned ruin too literally.

The park is open every day of the week from 10am until sunset and entrance costs 1.90 for an adult and 1.25 for “Carnet Jove” holders. Whereas on Sundays and Wednesdays the entrance is free as long as you stay no more than one hour in the park. This of course is close to impossible if you want to appreciate the full extent of the park and pretending not to understand any Spanish or English for that matter always helps. To get there you can take the Metro, green line 3, stop Mundet. From there you walk about 300 metres past the bicycle racing ring up the hill to the park. Approx. in 1994, when they restored the park, the council added a picnic area and playground to the outskirts of the park for families to have a break and enjoy a bite and to keep the main park itself clean.