Mossen Costa i Llobera garden in Barcelona – an exotic garden

Mossen Costa i Llobera gardens

I love discovering unusual or quirky things while visiting a new city and Barcelona does offer exciting and appealing sites to see. Some of these places grabbing my attention early on was when I visited Montjuic and the beautiful gardens that I saw in between the myriad of amazing museums.  My favorite garden to visit in Montjuic was this expansive desert garden, Mossen Costa i Lobera (named after famous poet Miguel Costa i Llobera) on the slopes of Montjuic overlooking the Miramar area with its scenic bayfront and beaches.

Unlike any other urban garden I’ve been to, the Mossen Costa i Llobera garden hosts an extensive collection of cactus, succulents, mediterranean, tropical and sub-tropical plants to create an exotic garden in the midst of this urban jungle. In fact, it is one of the most important cactus and succulent collections in the entire plant world. Surprisingly, there were only a few people visiting this magnificent garden when I visited and that’s probably due to the fact that it is not on every guidebooks top ten list of things to see in Barcelona. Personally, I consider this garden tour and the luxury of having the garden mostly to myself an absolute treasure. It’s worth spending some time here to enjoy the mature garden and take your time with your photography without a mass of tourists clamoring to be in the same spot.

Exotic Beauty

While taking a walk around the garden, it fun to discover some of the amazing plants and flowers in this garden.  With eclectic plant groupings and large cactus sculptures predominating the landscape, there are many interesting angles, vignettes and compositions to consider when photographing this garden. Walking through the various rooms opens up new discoveries, beautiful vistas and compositions just popping out at you with these cool cactus forms and silhouettes. Framing some views of the city or bayfront with the landscape, makes for unusual juxtaposition of urban with the desertscape.

The collection is large and expansive, but still an easy walk meandering downhill to the bayfront. Considering that this is an arid cactus garden, it is surprising to see the abundance of flowers, tropical colors and blooming cactus in this dry environment. In between undulating sculptural forms are the hot pinks, oranges and reds of Bougainvillea, trumpet flowers, Lantana flowers and many colorful perennials in full bloom.

There is so much to see and admire in this mature and vast collection. Following are some more photographs taken while touring the different garden rooms of this botanical oasis.

Don’t you think the gardens are amazing? Hopefully you’ll get a chance to visit this quiet part of Barcelona that is not on the tourist scene, but it is an amazing and breath-taking place to enjoy the landscape and scenery.

So is this a beautiful place to visit in Barcelona? Would you enjoy this place or pass it over for another monument or tourist attraction, I’m interested in knowing what you think of this garden. Also, take a look at the some of the other gardens I wrote about earlier on Montjuic and its gardens. in Barcelona.

If you enjoyed this post, check out these other Barcelona posts below

Travel Photo at Casa Mila

Barcelona Highlights for Photo Fridays

Montjuic parks and botanic gardens in Barcelona

Palau de la Musica Catalana, Barcelona

Panoramic views of Barcelona

Barcelona’s Gothic District

La Boqueria in Barcelona

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