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Palau Reial de Pedralbes
Royal Palace and Pretty Park
The Palau Reial de Pedralbes was a rather nice present to King Alfonso XIII from the heirs of Eusebi Güell to thank him for making Eusebi a count.
It served as headquarters of the Republican government at the end of the Civil War, and it was from here that President Azaña joined the rest of Barcelona on 29 October 1938, tearfully cheering as the last 12,673 members of the International Brigades marched down the Diagonal towards France and away from a hopeless cause.
Dolores Ibárruri, La Pasionaria, was on hand to give a moving speech. ‘You are history. You are legend. You are the heroic example of the solidarity and the universality of democracy…’
Franco made the palace his official residence in Barcelona, and former king Juan Carlos’ daughter Christina held her wedding banquet here in 1997, although less happily her husband was recently jailed for tax fraud.
For decades the palace housed museums of ceramics, design and graphics arts, now all mostly relocated into the new Museu del Disseny de Barcelona. Today it’s used as
a venue for events.
Palace Gardens
Images by Canaan, Carles Paredes, Creative Commons License, Victoriano Javier Tornel García