Montjuïc Kalesi

While Montjuïc Castle is a relatively recent addition to the summit, we know that the rest of hill has been inhabited more or less continuously since prehistoric times, thanks to the surviving records and the various archaeological excavations. The sites identified, with a timeline stretching from the Epipaleolithic period to medieval times, trace the history of the hill before the Castle was built. The oldest vestige of human occupation on Montjuïc is the jasper workshop in the Morrot area. Although the presence of prehistoric tools made of jasper from Montjuïc, at prehistoric sites in the Barcelonès and Baix Llobregat regions, has been reported since ancient times, the workshop on the hill was not located until the time of the major transformations made for the 1992 Olympic Games. In the course of an archaeological survey at the foot of the castle, the workshop was identified to the north of the hillside overlooking the port. The excavations revealed the raw materials used there: jasper and opal, cream-coloured flint in smaller quantities, quartz and quartzites, and established that the main function of this workshop was the extraction of jasper nodules. One of the other recent finds related to the prehistory of Montjuïc is a late Bronze Age settlement located at the junction of Carrer d’Anníbal and Carrer de Margarit, on the dividing line between Montjuïc and Poble Sec.The geographical location of the hill, with excellent views of the plain of Barcelona and the coastal sierras, the sea below and the River Llobregat, made Montjuïc an ideal place for the Iberians to establish a settlement there and a large trading centre. The various archaeological excavations carried out over the years have led to a better understanding of Iberian Montjuïc and now we can talk about various settlements and scattered finds. The oldest remains date from the sixth and seventh centuries BC and lie between the castle and the cemetery at the junction of Camí del Molí Antic and Camí de la Font de la Mamella. The area that has been the most abundant in finds from this period is the sector where the so-called Pont de l’Esparver was located, where the Via Magòria used to pass (now the Avinguda dels Ferrocarrils Catalans). On a small promontory nearby, the remains of a set of structures that may well have been the Iberian village on Montjuïc were found, including a large wall that probably enclosed the village. In this context, a remarkable group of silos was located nearby, used to store produce for trade and exchange. It is worth bearing in mind that the settlement’s location near the sea and the mouth of what was then a major navigable river, the Llobregat, would have made use of a natural port where goods could be stockpiled for distribution to and from other Mediterranean ports.It was not until 1929, during the work leading up to the 1929 Universal Exposition, that a number of finds from Roman times were made on the roadway that led from the stadium to the area of Vista Alegre. The remains of walls made of stone and mortar, silos cut out of the natural terrain and archaeological material dating from between the end of the second century BC and the sixth century AD suggest a small rural villa.