Montjuïc Mountain Bike Tour

Description of the route point to point:

• 0,2 km: MACBA Museum

Our montjuic bike tour starts in our By-Cycle shop, so the first stop is one of the most beautiful museums in the city: the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona, officially and in catalan language Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, also known by its acronym MACBA, is dedicated to the exhibition of art and contemporary cultural practices. The main building of the MACBA, with 14,300 m², is the work of the American architect Richard Meier, designed in 1990, its construction began in 1991 and lasted until 1995. The objective of the building was to unite the contemporary art exhibited inside with the historical forms of the surrounding buildings. The use of white, complemented by the use of glass skylights and reflective materials, gives the building a special luminosity. Meier’s work is influenced by the works of Le Corbusier and reinterprets rationalism. In this project one can observe the combination of straight spaces with curved lines, where exterior light plays a very important role.

• 1,1 km: Sant Antoni Market

Sant Antoni is one of the most beautiful markets of Barcelona city center, just renewed in June 2018. After more than 10 years working on it they have reopened the market to offer the visitors and the shop owners a beautiful space on one of the most beautiful buildings of Barcelona. The building was built in 1879 and is one the most precious architectonic jewells of the city, with a magnificent roof and walls, built over the ancient walls of the city (visible) and where you will be able to visit as well the great Via Augusta, one of the roman paths that made its entrance to the city center 2.000 years ago. Sant Antoni market is a real history museum inside a market.

• 2,6 km: Plaça Espanya and the Magic Fountain

Ride our montjuic bike tour for about 10 more minutes till Plaça Espanya and you will find another beautiful spot you can’t miss when visiting Barcelona. Paralel avenue is a full bike lane Plaça Espanya is one of the nexes you pass by when driving around Barcelona, acting as an entry point to the center of the city. There is a bullfighting arena rebuilt as a shopping mall: Arenas Shopping Mall which has a beautiful rooftop where you can enjoy a drink with a view. As well, the venetian towers give you entrance to the main avenue leading to the National Art Museum (1929) and the Montjuïc mountain, which renewed and rebuilt accesses and roads for the olimpic games in 1992.

• 4 km: Poble Espanyol

El Poble Espanyol is an open-air architectural museum located a few meters away from the Magic Fountains of Montjuic. It is a museum that offers contemporary art, architecture, crafts and gastronomy. The complex is made up of 117 life-size buildings, some of them copies of emblematic monuments of Spain. All of them make up an Iberian village with its streets, houses, squares, theatre, school, restaurants and craft workshops. Although in the beginning the complex had a programmed life of six months in 1929, the success of public allowed that it was conserved for longer and that it arrived until our days. Today, the Poble Espanyol, which has buildings representative of fifteen Spanish autonomous communities, also serves as an open-air architectural museum as well as a display of popular craftsmanship. There is also one of Barcelona’s private collections of contemporary art, with paintings by Miró, Dalí and Picasso.

• 6 km: Montjuic Castle

After the magic fountain and Plaça Espanya it comes a long and tough 3,3 km long uphill, that can be a bit challenging for the less sportive people. If you want to hear some relief here it comes: the toughest part is at the beginning, the first 1,5 km. When you arrive to the top of the mountain you will find the Montjuïc Castle, a military fortress from the 17th century that has been in the most important historical episodes of the city. Before that you will pass by the Olympic sportive complex, with the stadium, the swimmingpool and indoor stadium. Now these infrastructures can be visited and you can find there the olympic museum of Barcelona.

• 9,6 km: Columbus Tower

This montjuic bike tour will take you back to the city center from the mountain, where after a deserved rest and taking a few pictures of the magnificient views you can see from Montjuïc mountain, time to go down to Barcelona city center. You will enjoy a downhill till the Columbus homage monument, built in 1888 and one of the most iconic symbols of the city. It is visitable and you can reach the top using the elevator installed inside. 

• 10,4 km: Plaça Reial

We arriving to the end of our montjuic bike tour. Built in 1835 after demolishing a convent that was placed in the land Plaça Reial is one of the most iconic, beautiful and crowded plazas of Barcelona. Specially at night you will find a lot of activity in the bars, restaurants and pubs placed there. The palm trees with the fountain in the middle is one of the most photographed images in the city. As well, the bronze streetlights are interesting for one main reason: they were the first work of a very young Antoni Gaudí.

• 11 km: Boqueria Market

The free montjuic bike tour ends up in one of the most famous markets in the world: the Boqueria Market. There are references of a primitive market back in the year 1200, when those lands where out of the medieval city. This is more than 800 years ago! Boqueria or Saint Joseph market offers a wide range of local products, a great atmosphear and a lot of colours, smells and tastes. That is the perfect end for a great bike tour! Time to return your rental bikes to our shop!