Jardins del Mirador de l'Alcalde, Barcelona

These are the Mayor’s Viewpoint Gardens, a terraced hillside garden beneath Montjuïc Castle. The stepped design climbs the slope in four levels, linked by stone stairs and gently sloping lawns, and creates a balcony over the harbour. From the lower terrace, you can see the port and the city with the Mediterranean beyond.

The fountain made for the garden by Carles Buïgas sends water across small platforms before it falls into a pool below. Underfoot, Joan Josep Tharrats created a mosaic covering 420 m², using pebbles, old cobbles, bricks, tiles, bottle bottoms, chains, gear wheels, nuts, bolts and fragments of discarded street covers. At the upper level, Josep Maria Subirachs’s sculpture Homage to Barcelona was unveiled in March 1969. The gardens opened in 1969 and were renovated in 2009 while keeping their original design.