Barcelona, Gerona, and Valencia
This event is sold out. Please email nord@tclf.org to be placed on the waitlist.
In October 2026, Sofia Barrosa from AroundArt, who has organized The Cultural Landscape Foundation's (TCLF) tours of Madrid, Spain (where she currently lives), Portugal, Morocco, and Normandy, will lead the foundation's next international excursion to Barcelona, Gerona, and Valencia.
Explore the gardens and landscape (both urban and rural) of the Spanish Peninsula Mediterranean coast. Until the mid-fifteenth century, it was part of the Crown of Aragon, which included the Balearic Islands, Naples, and Sicily. With the marriage of Queen Ysabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon, both countries united, and Spain was born.
Barcelona was created by the Romans in the first century. It bloomed in the Middle Ages thanks to its commerce in the Mediterranean and had another renaissance in the turn of the twentieth century with the design of “Modernist” Art Nouveau Barcelona with Gaudí and his contemporaries. At the same time, the Arts & Crafts School and the Art Noveau movement had taken over Europe. All these architects had a connection to nature and landscape, especially Gaudí. Nature was an inspiration for architectural decorations. The 1992 Barcelona Olympics were the perfect excuse to re-vamp the city and give it a new identity, creating new squares, gardens, and parks for the peripheric communities, where landscape architects, artists, and urban planners worked together. At the same time, new private gardens were created both in the city and in the country—in the Northern province of Gerona, the Catalan Tuscany, where the weekend and summer residences are located for the “Barceloneses”.
The trip will finish in Valencia, a vital city with an independent personality, highlighting interesting urban gardens, such as the Turia Gardens, whose design was largely commissioned by the architect Ricardo Bofill in 1981. On the last day of the trip, the group will go to Javea to visit the Vicente Todolí Citrus Foundation, a project born from the Vicente family’s passion for citrus trees and the imposing threat of urbanism. Today, with nearly 500 varieties from around the world, this orchard is probably the largest collection of citrus fruits grown outdoors in the world.
Click here for the illustrated fifteen-page itinerary, along with information about pricing and registration.