Montjuïc Castle plans to renew its historical interpretation center with new content and a larger exhibition space. It is one of the most symbolic buildings on the mountain, municipal property since 2007. After the dismantling of the military museum with its closure in 2009, a master plan was promoted through which rehabilitation and improvement actions have been undertaken in the premises as the necessary resources became available.
Thus, in 2015, under the municipal mandate of Xavier Trias, the equipment interpretation center was inaugurated. Now, they want to renew this space and give it a new boost, which is why the services related to the drafting of a new museum project have recently been put out to tender.
The process is in an initial state although there are already some objectives of what this space, currently made up of four rooms around the parade ground, should be like in the future. In this sense, the tender documentation details that the aim is to offer a “better experience” to the visitor and incorporate “new readings” about the history of the castle.
Among the main purposes are to give a “broad social vision” of the past of the enclosure and the mountain related to the city, as well as “reinforce” the story about the repressive history of the castle and its symbolism, and not depend so much on the war episodes. of the military fortress. It also seeks to value the equipment as a “heritage element” and “articulate” the interpretation center within the city's cultural network and connect it with other memory spaces in Barcelona. In addition to updating some technical aspects, the signage to access the interpretation center will be improved.
To give substance to the renewed exhibition discourse, six thematic blocks are proposed, distributed in six rooms with an approximate useful area of 600 square meters. In one of them an immersive space is projected and in another the mountain and the origins of the castle will be explained, with the possibility of integrating the remains of a section of one of the bastions of the initial fort. A third block will show the construction of the castle and will contextualize this type of military architecture with bastions, widespread in Europe and America from the beginning of the 16th century.
On the other hand, in two other spaces, not only the repression suffered by the different social and political movements with imprisonments, judicial processes and executions during the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century will be made known, but also their political and ideological vision. Finally, another room will deal with the relationship between the castle and the mountain and the city over the years. The proposal emphasizes that despite the fact that they are different rooms and with diverse stories, the idea is to make a “unitary, overall proposal.”
The works will be subsidized by Next Generation European funds with a maximum expected cost of 350,000 euros (without VAT), including the museum installation, audiovisual systems and signage. Future work, still pending a start date, would begin after completing the entire bidding process, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2025, ICUB sources report.
In parallel, the tender for services related to the drafting of the projects and management of the works to adapt part of the rooms of the parade ground has been awarded, with an estimated budget of 1.7 million (without VAT).
The intervention will not have to be an impediment for the castle, declared a cultural asset of national interest, to continue being open to the public. 757,700 visitors passed through this facility the previous year, approaching pre-pandemic figures with almost 900,000 users.
