Montjuïc Castle for free: Sunday afternoons and the history held in its moat

Montjuïc Castle is free every Sunday from 15:00 and all day on the first Sunday of every month; under-16s never pay. The rest of the time a general ticket costs 12 euros and a reduced one 8. Until 31 October it opens from 10:00 to 20:00, and from 1 November from 10:00 to 18:00.

Montjuïc Castle can be visited for free every Sunday afternoon. People in Barcelona for a few days rarely fit that slot in; people living here for a few months have it every week. This guide explains when you do not pay, what it costs the rest of the time, when it opens and why this building weighs so heavily on the city's memory: it was a lighthouse, a fortress, a prison and a place of execution before it belonged to everyone again.

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When it is free

Entry is free every Sunday from 15:00 and all day on the first Sunday of every month. Under-16s always get in free. The same free slots apply to the ticket that covers only the temporary exhibitions.

The castle also holds open days on three occasions: the Mercè festival, Santa Eulàlia and the Night of Museums, which runs from 19:00 to 1:00 on the Saturday night closest to 18 May. The official list of free admissions includes holders of the free Tarjeta Rosa, holders of a disability card and their companion, accredited teachers, BCN card holders and people registered with Gaudir més Barcelona.

What it costs on other days

A general ticket costs 12 euros and a reduced one 8; the reduced price is for unemployed people, holders of the reduced Tarjeta Rosa and Bus Turístic passengers. The temporary exhibitions, on the lower level, have their own 6-euro ticket, although the general ticket already includes them.

There is a guided tour at weekends and on public holidays: at 13:00 in English, 15:30 in Spanish and 16:30 in Catalan. With entry it costs 16 euros, or 12 with the reduced ticket, and on free-entry days you only pay the 4 euros for the tour. The castle warns that it sells tickets only on its own website and has no agreements with other platforms.

Opening hours: they change on 1 November

From 1 March to 31 October it opens from 10:00 to 20:00, with the ticket office closing at 19:30. From 1 November to 28 February it opens from 10:00 to 18:00 and the ticket office closes at 17:30. It opens Monday to Sunday and closes only on 25 December and 1 January. In winter, then, the free Sunday afternoon lasts three hours: go up early.

From watchtower to fortress

Before the castle, the summit held a lighthouse or watchtower, documented in 1073, from which a lookout warned the city of approaching ships with sails by day and fire by night. In 1640, as the Reapers' War began, the Consell de Cent ordered it to be fortified and the townspeople built a small fort in thirty days. From there the troops of Philip IV were driven back at the battle of Montjuïc on 26 January 1641.

What you visit today is mostly the work of the military engineer Juan Martín Cermeño: he designed it in 1751 and it was built between 1753 and 1779, with a trapezoidal plan, four bastions, a moat and a covered way. Since 1988 it has been a Bien Cultural de Interés Nacional (BCIN), a protected heritage site.

A castle that watched the city

The fortress was turned against Barcelona itself many times. On 3 December 1842, on the orders of Espartero's government, its cannons bombarded the city for twelve hours and fired 1,014 bombs. After the 1896 bombing in Canvis Nous street, during the Corpus procession, some seven hundred people were arrested, and most of them were imprisoned, tortured and tried here: the so-called Montjuïc Trial. After the Tragic Week of 1909, five people were shot in the moats, among them the educator Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia.

The Civil War and Companys

On 23 August 1936 the Anti-Fascist Militias Committee took the castle and President Lluís Companys raised the Catalan flag there. During the Civil War it was mainly a military prison: according to the City Council, almost 1,500 people were imprisoned and around 250 executed, most of them accused of treason or spying against the Republic.

Franco's troops entered Barcelona on 26 January 1939 and the castle became a military prison again. Companys was arrested in La Baule, in occupied France, on 13 August 1940, and handed over to Spain. He was held in isolation in the castle, a summary court martial lasting less than an hour sentenced him to death on 14 October, and he was shot on 15 October 1940 in the Santa Eulàlia moat.

Back to the city

A ministerial order of 27 April 2007 returned the castle to the city. On 15 June 2008 a public celebration marked its recovery with tributes to Companys and Ferrer i Guàrdia, and the Military Museum closed on 24 May 2009. Today, from the parade ground, you enter the interpretation centre, which fills seven rooms and tells this story in order. Up top, the terrace is a 360-degree viewpoint over the port, the sea and Tibidabo.

Getting up there

Bus 150 leaves from Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina and ends at the castle; from Plaça d'Espanya it takes about 20 minutes. The cable car climbs from Avinguda de Miramar, stopping at Plaça de la Sardana, and its fare does not include castle entry. On foot, from the funicular station, it is 20 to 25 minutes of steady uphill between gardens. If you fancy an afternoon on the lower slopes, see what to see around the Font Màgica.

Checked

Information checked in October 2026 on Barcelona City Council's Montjuïc Castle website (ajuntament.barcelona.cat/castelldemontjuic): practical information, the 2026 free and reduced admissions document, guided tours, history, the site, the interpretation centre, the viewpoint and how to get there. Prices and opening hours can change: confirm them on its website before going up.