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Historical Botanical Garden, Barcelona: The Sot de la Masia
Information in English, Castellano , and Català is provided at the Ajuntament de Barcelona website:
w3.bcn.es/V01/Serveis/Noticies/V01NoticiesLlistatNoticies...; rel="nofollow">w3.bcn.es/V01/Serveis/Noticies/V01NoticiesLlistatNoticies
The Historical Botanical Garden, a little gem among the gardens of Barcelona, is
hidden in the cavities of two ancient quarries in the Foixarda sector of Montjuïc,
behind the National Art Museum of Catalonia. The fact that this is a sunken area,
on Montjuïc's shadier side, means that cold air accumulates at the lowest level
and temperatures are up to four degrees lower than at the highest level. This
facilitates the growth of Euro-Siberian type species, typical of colder climates.
The Sot de la Masia
Passing through the tunnel beneath the steps one enters the Sot de la Masia. The Cattle Farmers' Association built the house as a model farm for the Universal Exhibition of 1929. The aim was to show a representation of Catalan rural life in the early twentieth century. The garden design project, produced by Font i Quer and W. Rothmaler in 1935, envisaged converting the farmhouse into a centre for carrying out work in gardening, seeds, plant propagation, laboratories, research and comparative cultures. Initially it had annex buildings for exhibiting paintings of animals (cattle, equines, goats, sheep and pigs). Today, when the rural world that led to the construction of the farmhouse is on its way out, the Botanical Garden, with the collaboration of its Association of Friends, is running an activities programme focusing on plants useful to humans, which farmers have cultivated since the Neolithic era. A new experiment has recently been set up. It is an organic garden, showing how these function and how traditional species grow there and the seeds that they produce. The Sot de la Masia is a circular space, like a large boiler, more open and wider than the Sot de l'Estany. Light easily reaches the bottom and the humidity is much lower. As a result, the plants that live there are also different, with a greater presence of Mediterranean species. The visit can be done following the main road to the bottom, where the farmhouse is, or by entering the paths at different levels, which follow the pieces of land separated by the stone walls.
Historical Botanical Garden, Barcelona: The Sot de la Masia
Information in English, Castellano , and Català is provided at the Ajuntament de Barcelona website:
w3.bcn.es/V01/Serveis/Noticies/V01NoticiesLlistatNoticies...; rel="nofollow">w3.bcn.es/V01/Serveis/Noticies/V01NoticiesLlistatNoticies
The Historical Botanical Garden, a little gem among the gardens of Barcelona, is
hidden in the cavities of two ancient quarries in the Foixarda sector of Montjuïc,
behind the National Art Museum of Catalonia. The fact that this is a sunken area,
on Montjuïc's shadier side, means that cold air accumulates at the lowest level
and temperatures are up to four degrees lower than at the highest level. This
facilitates the growth of Euro-Siberian type species, typical of colder climates.
The Sot de la Masia
Passing through the tunnel beneath the steps one enters the Sot de la Masia. The Cattle Farmers' Association built the house as a model farm for the Universal Exhibition of 1929. The aim was to show a representation of Catalan rural life in the early twentieth century. The garden design project, produced by Font i Quer and W. Rothmaler in 1935, envisaged converting the farmhouse into a centre for carrying out work in gardening, seeds, plant propagation, laboratories, research and comparative cultures. Initially it had annex buildings for exhibiting paintings of animals (cattle, equines, goats, sheep and pigs). Today, when the rural world that led to the construction of the farmhouse is on its way out, the Botanical Garden, with the collaboration of its Association of Friends, is running an activities programme focusing on plants useful to humans, which farmers have cultivated since the Neolithic era. A new experiment has recently been set up. It is an organic garden, showing how these function and how traditional species grow there and the seeds that they produce. The Sot de la Masia is a circular space, like a large boiler, more open and wider than the Sot de l'Estany. Light easily reaches the bottom and the humidity is much lower. As a result, the plants that live there are also different, with a greater presence of Mediterranean species. The visit can be done following the main road to the bottom, where the farmhouse is, or by entering the paths at different levels, which follow the pieces of land separated by the stone walls.