www.zoobarcelona.cat
City: Barcelona
Country: Spain
Province: Catalonia
Opened 1892
Species 400
This zoo is one of Spains bests showing the ever popular dolphins, a good terrarium - the zoo also has komodo dragons, the great apes like the gorilla. The rare wildlife og Iberia, like the Iberian wolf and the spanish ibex. Just to mention some.
Barcelona Zoo
Parc de la Ciutadella s/n
08003 Barcelona
Spain
Open minimum 10am-5.30pm
Entrance fee
There are several daily feeding shows, for the time please ask at the till station.
History:
In Barcelona, since the fourteenth century there are lions and other exotic animals in the Palau Reial Menor or de la Reina. In the late nineteenth century, Lluís Martí i Codolar created his own zoological collection, and in the spring of 1892 he offered it to Barcelona City Council. The then mayor Manuel Porcar approved the acquisition of the animals and their subsequent exhibition in a public enclosure, the Parc de la Ciutadella. The Municipal Plenary Session approved it on 26 April of the same year and work began on 19 May to adapt the spaces. Francesc d'Assís Darder was commissioned to organize the zoological collection and the municipal architect Pere Falqués i Urpí was responsible for executing the works. Finally, the Zoological Garden was opened to the public on September 24, 1892, coinciding with the Mercè Festival, welcoming the animals that had been transferred from the Old Farm, although no opening ceremony was held. The initial complex occupied a strip of about 200 metres on Passeig dels Oms, now Carrer de Wellington. The animals were divided into three large groups (primates, aquatic animals and quadrupeds) following the recommendations of Manuel Mir i Navarro, professor of Natural Sciences at the Institute of Secondary Education of Barcelona. Curiously, one of the main initial sources of funding was the sale of eggs and hatchlings from the collection, since access to the site was free until the 20s.
In 1894 the Lions' House was built and in 1897 the first catalogue of the Zoo was published and, two years later, in 1899, a complete informative dossier. The animals were kept with vegetables and food from a farm in Sant Andreu. Since admission was free, the Park was financed by the sale of young birds, eggs and ducks, but also feathers, skins and even animal feces. They also held regular auctions of surplus animals.
The Park was used by Francoist propaganda when conquering the city of Barcelona, saying that the reds had eaten part of the zoo's animals during the Civil War. La Vanguardia of August 13, 1939 said "While Madrid was dying of hunger, the red councils dared to sacrifice the animals of the Zoo. After the war, Antoni Riera i Adroher, a former employee of the centre, became interim director of the zoo between 1934 and 1953. In 1944 they acquired a new elephant, named Pearl, who came from Hamburg and died in 1953 from a stomach ulcer. In 1951 the Society of Friends of the Zoo was created, which began to meet in the clinic of the ophthalmologist Ignacio Barraquer and later in the Halls of the Equestrian Circle. Among its members were Barraquer himself, Benet Perpiñà and Francesc Vilardell, the industrialist Nicolau Riera, Joaquín Dalmau, Salvador de Samà, among others. Antoni Jonch i Cuspinera would be the director of the Zoo between 1955 and 1985. He was responsible for the institution's recovery.
In the mid-50s, the possibility of moving the Park to Montjuïc or expanding its surface area to Ciutadella Park was considered, going from 2 to 12 hectares, within a plan called "Extension and Modernization Works", in which more than 40 million of the old pesetas were invested. In 1959 the Municipal Service of the Zoo was created, chaired by the Mayor, with Antoni Jonch as manager. With the arrival of Josep Maria de Porcioles to the Mayor of Barcelona, he showed a special interest in the zoo, even presiding over the meetings of the Board of Directors and contributing an important volume of resources, managing to promote infrastructures such as the Aquarama, the Aviary and the Terrarium, and obtaining his international recognition. During his tenure, the zoo's area grew from 2.7 hectares to 12 hectares, incorporating many specimens from a center in Ikunde, in present-day Equatorial Guinea.
In the 60s, several campaigns were promoted to promote the zoo among citizens, such as a propaganda poster contest (won in 1960 by the artist Miquel Jiménez Arnalot) or the campaign "A day at the zoo". It got about three million visitors (one million paying admission). Even General Francisco Franco visited the facilities on May 18, 1960.
It was also the Ikunde Center that found the first known albino gorilla, named Snowflake and which would become the symbol of the Park for decades. The Centre was active until the late 60s, when the process of independence of what was then called Spanish Guinea began.
1972 a terrarium was opened. The bird house is from the same time
In October 2015, as part of a new municipal policy against animal shows, acrobatic displays of trained cetaceans were abolished at the dolphinarium. The last dolphin left the zoo 2020
2018 the Sahel area was opened. Here you meet lion, giraffes and African elephants
