In the heart of the Eixample, where the old slaughterhouse once stood, Parc de Joan Miró offers one of the district’s few large green spaces — and a monumental surprise at its centre. The park is anchored by one of the most striking pieces of public sculpture in Barcelona: Dona i Ocell (Woman and Bird), a 22-metre ceramic tower created by Joan Miró in 1983, just months before his death at the age of 90.
Dona i Ocell: Miró’s Final Public Statement
The sculpture stands in a shallow reflecting pool, its surface covered in fragments of mirror and coloured ceramic tile — a technique Miró used throughout his career and that connects the work visually to Gaudí’s mosaic tradition. The form is deliberately ambiguous: part totemic figure, part bird, part pure abstraction. It rewards careful looking from multiple angles, each position revealing different readings of the form.
Miró worked with his long-time collaborator Joan Gardy Artigas on the ceramics. The sculpture is both a summation of Miró’s lifelong vocabulary and a gift to the city of his birth — a final, generous public gesture from one of Catalonia’s greatest artists.
The Park
Beyond the sculpture, the park is a well-used neighbourhood green space with palm trees, pergolas, a large pine grove, children’s playgrounds, and table tennis facilities. The upper level features a long pergola covered with climbing plants that provides welcome shade in summer. It’s a good place to rest between Eixample sightseeing, and the contrast between the surrounding dense urban grid and the open park space is striking.
Getting There
Parc de Joan Miró is between Carrer d’Aragó and Carrer de Tarragona, in the Esquerra de l’Eixample district. The nearest metro stations are Tarragona (L3) and Espanya (L1/L3). Entry is free and the park is open all day.