Montjuïc Castle plans to renovate 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 initiated with which rehabilitation and improvement actions have been undertaken in the enclosure so the necessary resources were available. In this way, in 2015, under the municipal mandate of Xavier Trias, the interpretation center for the equipment was inaugurated.
Now they want to renovate this space and give it a new impetus, which is why the services relating to the drafting of a new museographic project have recently been put out to tender.
The process is in an initial state, although there are already some goals set for what this space should look like in the future, currently made up of four rooms around the courtyard. In this regard, the tender documentation states that the aim is to offer a "better experience" to the visitor and incorporate "new readings" on the history of the castle.
Among the main purposes is to give a "broad social vision" of the past of the site and the mountain related to the city, and also to "reinforce" the story about the repressive history of the castle and its symbolism, and not depend so much on belle episodes lics of the military fortress. It is also intended to highlight the equipment as a "patrimonial element" and "articulate" the interpretation center within the city's cultural network and connect it with other spaces of memory 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 a useful surface of around 600 m2. In one of these blocks 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 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 it will be made known not only the repression suffered by the various social and political movements with imprisonments, judicial processes and executions during the 19th century and the first half of the 20th, but also their political vision and ideological Finally, another room will deal with the relationship between the castle and the mountain with the city over the years. The proposal emphasizes the fact that, despite the fact that they are different spaces and with different stories, the idea is to present a "unitary proposal".
The works will be subsidized by European Next Generation funds with a maximum expected cost of 350,000 euros (without VAT), including the museum installation, audiovisual systems and signage. The future works, still pending to specify a start date, would begin after the end of the entire bidding process, scheduled for the end of 2025, inform sources from the Institute of Culture of Barcelona (Icub).
At the same time, the tender has been awarded for the services related to the drafting of the projects and the management of the works to adapt part of the rooms in the courtyard of arms, with an estimated budget of 1.7 million (without VAT) .
The intervention should not be an impediment for the castle, declared a Cultural Heritage of National Interest, to remain open to the public. This facility received 757,700 visitors last year and came close to pre-pandemic figures with almost 900,000 users.
