Espais Verds

The transfer of specimens housed in the Castell dels Tres Dragons, the building in the Ciutadella Park, inaugurated in 1888 and dedicated in recent years to guarding zoology and geology collections, has begun. The Barcelona City Council, through a company specialized in the handling and transport of heritage works, has begun the transport of 20.000 pieces of vertebrates from the Castle to the headquarters of the Museu de Ciències Naturals, located in the Forum. The invertebrates (around 1.500.000) will also be moved from the first and second floors of the building to the ground floor and basement.

All this with the aim of preserving these species from the renovation works of the Castle that are scheduled to begin during the first quarter of 2026. This work should allow the restoration and consolidation of the facades, and the renovation and energy improvement of the roof of this unique construction. Once the exterior renovation is complete, it is planned to begin transforming the interior to house a cafeteria-restaurant, an auditorium, several rooms for exhibition purposes and a new space that will house a library specializing in sciences.

The director of the Natural Sciences Museum, Carles Lalueza, has highlighted that, with the transfer of the pieces to the Forum “the conservation and air conditioning conditions of the pieces will be improved, and at the same time they will be prevented from being damaged with the start of the works on the facades of the Castle. The objective is for the specimens to be dedicated to scientific purposes, as up to now, forming part of various studies or being included in temporary exhibitions”.

Lalueza has assured that the transformation of the Castle must serve to turn it into a facility “open to the public, versatile, multi-purpose, heritage and with different spaces that can maintain the scientific character that it has always had”.

The transfer involves moving large animals such as elephants, bears, ostriches or giraffes, and that is why it requires the intervention of a team of 20 people from a specialized company.

Axis of the Ciutadella Knowledge Hub 

The Castle of the Three Dragons is part, together with the Hivernacle, the Centre Martorell d’Exposicions and the Umbracle, of the heritage axis of the Ciutadella Knowledge Hub; a pioneering scientific and urban project that aims to convert the park and its surroundings into a leading node of knowledge, dissemination, research and innovation in Europe.

The aim is for the Castle to function as a transmission and dissemination belt for all the scientific knowledge generated in the research areas of the Ciutadella Knowledge Hub, such as the research complex of the old Fish Market where there will be three buildings dedicated to biomedicine, biodiversity and planetary well-being or the biosciences building that the CSIC will build on the site of the old State Mobile Park. 

The building is part of the Museu de Ciències Naturals complex, which includes its headquarters in Parc del Fòrum; the Barcelona Botanical Garden and the Historical Botanical Garden in Montjuïc; and the Centre Martorell d’Exposicions, the Hivernacle and the Castell dels Tres Dragons, in Parc de la Ciutadella.

In total, the institution, which is a consortium formed by the Barcelona City Council and the Generalitat de Catalunya, has 147 years of history and a heritage of three million specimens in the fields of mineralogy, petrology, paleontology, zoology and botany.