That's not terribly respectful... I don't know if that's a common figure of speech in the US but it's not a particularly nice phrase to use on this side of the pond. The Basilica de Santa Maria del Mar and Cathedral of Barcelona are both nearby among fairly nice streets so I'd recommend those two churches.
Top 10 things to do in Madrid: Number 1: Leave In all seriousness, I really enjoyed the Reina Sofía museum when I visited Madrid. Barcelona has a bunch of cool touristically attractive sights but I don't see myself as someone who would know enough to explain what is worth it and what is not.
For me: in Barcelona you have Modernist arquitechture, you can see the buildings and the Sagrada Family Basilic, or the Güell Park, projected by Gaudí. Beach if you likes, and talking about nature, Collserola Natural Parc in the near mountains. Near Madrid: El Pardo mont, where you (with a bit of luck) can see fallowdeers and red deers in enclosures. Museums in the city like El Prado, Reina Sofia, or Tyssen. Two cities have plenties of good cultural or natural places /sites but any not too near of the zoos,
Barcelona was ok. Some enclosures like those in the Sahel region as well as the ape enclosures were quite well built whereas others were quite outdated. The worst was the parrot area right by the entrance and the jaguar/leopard cages. I don't wanna be too harsh as they are clearly trying with what they have but IMO, the zoo still has a lot of work to do. I do hope that these areas get renovated as the newer enclosures prove that the zoo can produce quality exhibits Personally, I'd seriously consider relocating the zoo to a part of the city with more space, ideally twice as much as the zoo's current 32 acres. Maybe somewhere in Parc de Montjuic. Then just make sure the Metro goes there.
There have been plans to move the zoo for decades. A few years ago it was decided to divide the Zoo into 2 parts: one would stay in the Parc de la Ciutadella, focusing on land animals, and the other would move to the Fòrum area, focusing on aquatic animals. That plan has now been scrapped. In fact, the Zoo no longer has dolphins or seals, for example. Previously, there was discussion about moving to other sites, for example, Montjuïc, but it was never carried out. Barcelona is a very complex city, and the political sphere directly affects the Zoo. Currently there is a very strong animalistic trend. The zoo has many impediments and little funding. The works progress very slowly and also focus on secondary aspects, such as building restaurants and other nonsense, while the animals live in obsolete facilities. The conclusion is that what until a few years ago was by far the best zoo in Spain is currently a decadent and forgotten zoo.
I think the lack of political will is kinda sad. You could totally garner support for moving to Montjuïc and maybe get funding from other places. I think the best thing would be to use all that site for the big animals like big cats, elephants, etc. Then use the current site for small animals. Like the relationship between Central Park and the Bronx
The new master plan plans a comprehensive reform of the entire zoo, with areas for primates, a Mediterranean area, an African area, aquatic animals and, it seems, a South American area. No Asian area appears. All this indicates that new species will come to the zoo but many others will leave. The worst thing is that the reforms that have been carried out so far, except for those of the Sahel complex, all seem temporary, each one has a different style (orangutans, elephants' bedroom, tapirs' bedrooms...). This makes the zoo a disharmonious whole. Also, priority is being given to restaurants, playgrounds and other crap over improving animal enclosures. I don't think the future for Barcelona Zoo is very hopeful, I hope I'm wrong.
It seems that few people care about the zoo in Barcelona. That is why the great reforms that are seen in other countries are not possible here. It's a shame...
Yea it's a real shame because I think Barcelona Zoo could be an amazing facility if they had an actual plan. The whole zoo was quite inconsistent so I have no idea what the hell management is like there.
I mean, a plan exists, the thing is that it isn't advancing. Isn't one of the suggested areas an Islands area too???
That's a double problem...one is that it's not advancing (usually because there's not enough funding), and the second one is that the plan usually changes every time that a new mayor is elected, so the previous plan is scrapped and the new government wants to develop its own new plan. Just few parts of each masterplan are actually built and as every masterplan is different there's a big inconsistency between what is done. Just an example of how slow it goes.... the construction of dormitories for the elephants started on 2010 and were part of one masterplan (different from the current one). We are on 2022 and the enclosure for the elephants it's still under construction (it's not even 50% finished... even not a 25% as most of we can actually see it's temporary)
The 2010 plans were the massive "bioparcization" of the whole zoo, right? I have slight memories of concept art featuring malayan tapirs. It's been a very long while ahahaha.
I have seen so many masterplans that I can't remeber if it was this one. I don't remember the one that contained the elephant exhibit as one with a lot of "bioparcization" as the enclosure for the elephants was not very natural I only liked one masterplan in terms of animal collection but nothing of that masterplan was ever built.
Went to Zoo Madrid today. Wasn't bad at all. The exhibits were appropriately sized, the animals seemed content, and I even got to see some cool behaviors like the bull elephants playing in the water and the orangutan family playing. It's not a 10/10 though. I'd like to expand the space the elephants have, maybe give them a big overpass, and I think the zoo still suffers a bit of quantity over quality. But overall, it's a far more enjoyable establishment than Barcelona.
I think one cool thing they could do is to make the overpass in the orangutan enclosure out of glass so as they pass bu, they can look down. Great experience for both animals and guests.
