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MEMORIES<br />
AND<br />
GHOSTS<br />
OF<br />
MONTJUIC<br />
By Adam Wheeler, Photos thanks to Mat Oxley &<br />
Penya Motorista Barcelona<br />
RIDING AND RACING AT ONE OF<br />
EUROPE’S MOST SCENIC AND<br />
DEADLY STREET CIRCUITS<br />
Montjuic Park<br />
Barcelona’s towering,<br />
compact enclave<br />
of greenery and<br />
view, is a hallmark of Catalan culture itself: something contradictory and symbolic. The<br />
hilltop castle at the peak has both bombed and protected the citizens below, and housed<br />
and executed prisoners of a political standoff between Catalunya and central Spain that is<br />
still fervent today. The breathtaking panorama and tranquillity on the city side is offset by<br />
the presence of more than 150,000 graves – a mountain of dead – on the other and from<br />
the 1950s until the mid 1980s it was home to one of Spain’s best loved Grand Prix motorsports<br />
street-based circuits that was also perilous and unforgiving.<br />
The Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya recently took place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Cataluyna,<br />
built in 1991 and located around 20km north of the metropolis and where<br />
commemorations occurred to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the FIM Motorcycling<br />
World Championship. Spain have won eight of the last nine MotoGP titles and observers<br />
will have to trawl back to 2008 for the last time any of the three classes – MotoGP, Moto2<br />
or Moto3 – were not stamped with the Rojigualda flag.
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