Serra de Collserola

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The Serra de Collserola is a mountain range between the rivers Besòs and Llobregat. It separates Barcelona from the depression of the Vallés. Its tallest peak is the Tibidabo, at 512 m. The valleys of the Llobregat and Besós Rivers, the plain of Barcelona, and the Vallés basin, mark the geographical boundaries of the Collserola massif.

To preserve this space, in 1987 the Parc de Collserola (Collserola Park), which has an area of 84.65 km², was established. It is the largest metropolitan park in the world - 8 times larger than the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, and 22 times larger than Central park in New York.

In the park, over a thousand major plants and around thirty plant communities have been catalogued; including forests of Aleppo pines and nut pines, evergreen oaklands, riverside copses, maquis and scrublands, brush and Savannah grasslands. This diversity allows the existence of a rich, varied wildlife; including wild boar, genets, stone marten, badger, rabbit, and squirrel; blue tits, whitethroats, treecreepers, woodpeckers, bee eaters, doves, goshawks, sparrow hawks, and rat-catching eagles; salamanders, newts, green tree frogs, the small southern frog, toads, the small spotted toad, the Mediterranean turtle, the giant turtle, the ocellated lizard, snakes...

Over the Vilana hill, at 445 m rises the Torre de Collserola (Collserola Tower), a telecommunications tower built in 1992 for the use of Olympic games. It is 268 m and was built by the British architect Norman Foster.