The Girona stronghold loaded with history that falls to pieces among the undergrowth

GironaThis weekend, coinciding with the final stretch of Temps de Flors, Montjuïc Castle in Girona received a floral offering. It was brought by the residents of this neighborhood, situated on a hill at the northern entrance of the city, far from the hustle and bustle of the center. They were not, however, to decorate and make it look nice, but rather an act of protest due to the poor condition of the fortress, as, although it is considered a cultural asset of national interest (BCIN), it is in a ruinous state: the stones are crumbling, weeds are growing, it is full of graffiti and dirt. Residents barely step foot there and it has become a meeting point for anti-social individuals.

To make their complaints heard, the residents have organized under the platform Salvem el Castell (Save the Castle), which brings together more than a hundred people and has already submitted two petitions to the council. The main instigator is Ricard Camó: "We have a heritage that is collapsing and no one is doing anything. In the next elections, we want all parties to explain what plan they have for the castle," he states. The fort, at 219 meters above sea level, has a square floor plan, about 160 meters on each side, and features four watchtowers, ramparts, a moat, entrance gates, the barracks, the parade ground, and accommodations for over 700 soldiers. It offers a privileged view of the Girona plain, with the entire city at its feet and Rocacorba in the background.

"Montjuïc is a neighborhood of Girona, not a housing development"

Since the advent of democracy, however, no municipal government, neither socialist nor convergent, has taken the initiative to restore it and turn it into an active and citizen-friendly hub. "In Girona, they consider Montjuïc a mere urbanization, but we are a neighborhood that all the people of Girona could enjoy. In the rest of the city, they know nothing about the castle. Only that it is up there, and they reduce Montjuïc to a mountain where there used to be shacks and outsiders, and now there are rich people and villas, but we are much more than that," argues Camó.

Faced with these claims, the City Council assures that maintenance tasks are already being carried out on the paths, respecting that vegetation can grow freely. However, they admit that no action has been taken on the stones for thirty years and that, to remedy this grievance, they are preparing a master plan for next year. The council assures that it has reserved an investment allocation of more than one million euros (which will require the participation of other administrations) to act on this BCIN and guarantee its preservation.

The residents request that the municipal architectural plan include the integral cleaning of trees and weeds and turn the castle into a community living space with cultural and recreational activities. They are looking at the intervention carried out at the castles of Sant Ferran de Figueres or Hostalric. They also propose installing information plaques that explain the history of the neighborhood and this archaeological site.

From a fort to protect themselves from the French to a shanty town camp

The first historical documents record that, during the Reapers' War, in the 17th century, a small fortification was built on the north mountain of the city to protect against French invasions, the main enemy of the time. Initially, it was a precarious fort, but over the years it gradually became a strategic bastion that played a leading role in conflicts such as the War of Succession or the Napoleonic Wars, by the 19th century.

All this until, from 1957 onwards, during Franco's regime, the castle, already abandoned from its military tasks, was transformed into a camp of attached stone shacks where the immigrant population arriving from the rest of the State settled. About 3,000 people lived there. One of them is the lawyer Ramon Llorente, who spent the first years of his life there: "Despite all the problems we had, without water, electricity or adequate roads to go down to Girona to work in the factories, we lived happily. We got along well and it was like an annex of Andalusia, on the margins of the city in economic and cultural terms," he recalls. And, about the neglect in which the site is found, he comments: "It is regrettable that since the town hall acquired it in 1984 it has been a permanent oversight".

In 1967 the plan to urbanize Montjuïc was approved and on December 24, 1971, the last shack was demolished. The families were rehoused in Vila-roja and in neighborhoods such as Germans Sàbat, Pont Major or Salt. Now, every September they gather at the castle to celebrate a party there. This year will be the twentieth edition of the gathering.