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Jardines de Portolà, photo by Òscar Giralt courtesy of Ajuntament de Barcelona (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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Image courtesy of Ajuntament de Barcelona (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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Image courtesy of Ajuntament de Barcelona (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
If you’re looking for a quiet place to unwind, the Jardins de Portolà is an ideal spot. You won’t find it on any tourist map; it’s a small, secluded residential garden with design elements that are reminiscent of a bygone era. Located just behind behind the Avenida de la República Argentina in the hilly neighborhood of El Putxet i el Farró in Sarrià-Sant Gervasi, you can just see the green canopy created by the palms and other trees in the garden from the escalators on Carrer de Claudi Sabadell. However, thanks to the trees, the interior of the garden is sheltered from prying eyes.
From Vineyards to Public Park
The land where the gardens are located today is former farmland, where a vineyard stood until the end of the 18th century. In the later part of the 19th century, the estate became the property of a woman named Rosa de Portolà i Guinart, widow of Catalan landowner Casimir de Gomis i de Ros. In 1888, she commissioned the master builder Alexandre Perich i Soler to create a design for an urban development project on the land, including the landscaping of the surrounding streets, and the design of modernista gardens. By the time the plan was approved by the city in 1891, Portolà had passed away just a few short months earlier; luckily for the city, the carefully mapped-out urbanization plan was carried out anyway.
This estate has been well-preserved over the past century-plus, and the renovated courtyard and gardens were inaugurated as a public space in 2009 after local residents campaigned to make the gardens a public facility.
Image courtesy of Ajuntament de Barcelona (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
The Gardens
Today, the restored gardens still preserve the original structure designed by Perich, as well as ornamental elements dating back to the same era: the fountain, the large planters, and the benches are all either original or faithful replicas of originals. And while the gardens may be relatively compact, they are a haven for many types of flora, both native and imported.
The entrance at Carrer de Portolà, 5 is flanked by pots of gardenias and shaded by orange trees. Two towering Canary Island date palms appear to stand guard over visitors who enter. The nearby flowerbeds are home to fragrant star jasmine vines and common groundsel, purple carpet bugle, spider plants, and a large, spiky “false holly” bush (osmanthus heterophyllus). If you follow the path down the brick stairs, you’ll reach a small plaza built around a circular fountain, glazed ceramic bench, and a pergola. Here, the flowerbeds include bay laurel, privet and medlar bushes, and tall stalks of African lilies. This is one of the prettiest sectors of the park, and most visitors stop for a rest on the colorful ceramic bench.
Past the fountain are holly bushes pruned into circular shapes, as well as several different fruit trees. In the remaining flowerbeds are repeating patterns of irises, yellow ragwort, and more spider plants. The far end of the garden is home to an olive tree, an American sweetgum tree, more medlar, and Virginia creeper vines, which turn brilliant shades of red or green depending on the season.
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Image courtesy of Ajuntament de Barcelona (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
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Image courtesy of Ajuntament de Barcelona (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).
Modernista Architecture
The building on the grounds is as well worth checking out as are the gardens themselves, and is divided up into two distinct sections: The lower section is aligned with the street, with a ground floor and a single upper floor; this section is plainer, with less decorative embellishments. Its relatively plain façade is made of stucco, exposed brick and glazed ceramic elements in horizontal bands or stripes. But as the building grows taller, the decoration becomes more elaborate, with the more austere base and repetitive patterns of stucco, brick, and ceramic helping to draw the eye upward to the spectacular roof and eaves.
The higher section of the building consists of a ground floor and two upper floors, overlooking the rear garden. On the second floor, the building features windows on all four walls, each topped with an arch, offering this part of the construction year-round natural light. Above them, the walls continue upwards until they meet the roof and eaves, which open up into a colorful corolla, resembling a gigantic flower seeking the sun. The roof is split into two sections by an impressive terrace with wooden balustrades, and the balconies are decorated with ceramic tiles and iron railings worked into floral patterns. Wooden corbels and more of the glazed ceramic tiles also decorate the cornice of the lower building, while the stuccoed cornice of the other section of the building is decorated in two-toned plant motifs, created using an Italian technique called sgraffito.
The windows also feature floral motifs wrought in stained glass, which are repeated in the patterns of the hydraulic tiles. A grand staircase leads from the entrance down to the garden. Overall, the effect of the design is joyful, and is an impressive example of the Modernisme era in Barcelona.
The building has since had several uses, including housing the Col·legi Major Montseny, which used the gardens as a kind of open-air extension of the classroom: a tranquil spot for both study or relaxation. Today, it is currently occupied by the non-profit organization Centre l’Alba, which works with children and adolescents with psychological disorders. Both the Jardins de Portolà and the Villa Matilde are protected as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest (BCIL): the second-highest level of heritage protection in Catalunya according to the Catalan Cultural Heritage Act (Law 9/1993).
The gardens are open from 8:00 until approximately 19:00 from November 1st through March 31st, and from 8:00 until approximately 21:00 from April 1st through October 31st. The closing time may vary depending on the time the sun sets. The building may only be viewed from the outside, unless you have an appointment with the Alba Center.