Garden built around a fountain, the Llobregat River, and a factory, promoted by its owner, the industrialist Joan Artigas Alart. The garden is structured around the two cliffs on either side of the river, connected by two bridges: one is a lopsided arch leading to a pavilion, and the other has a pergola roof made of concrete covered in stone.
The design recalls certain aspects of Park Güell, though on a smaller scale, which was being built around the same time in Barcelona’s Gràcia district. Similarly, the Artigas Garden features organic lines perfectly integrated into the natural surroundings, and even includes an artificial grotto.
The garden was conceived as a promenade, with a defined route highlighting key landmarks: the Belvedere (Glorieta), the Cave (Cova) — originally the site of the Magnesia Fountain and built using catenary arches — the Waterfall (a fountain made of stone in the broken, Gaudí-esque style), and the picnic area beside the bridge.
Construction began with the grotto next to the Magnesia Fountain, which gives the garden its name. It has an elongated shape following the river gorge. Nearby, the lopsided-arch bridge has steps leading up to the Belvedere, topped with a conical roof covered in small stones. Along the route, several animals are represented — a lion and an ox in two fountains, and an eagle at the foot of the stairs; these figures, together with an angel (now missing), are believed to symbolise the four evangelists.
Throughout the garden there are numerous balustrades and flowerbeds, fountains, bridges, waterfalls, squares, viewpoints, benches and sculptures (such as the figures of a man and a woman carrying baskets on their heads). The work is primarily built of stone and mortar, reinforced to varying degrees.
The garden incorporated the natural vegetation of the area — firs, Scots pines, beeches, and boxwoods — complemented by the planting of poplars.
The Artigas Gardens, also known as the ‘Parc de la Magnesia’ due to the spring that feeds them, are located beside what was once the textile factory owned by Joan Artigas Alart, who also promoted the garden’s construction.
Although no documentary proof exists, several scholars — notably Joan Bassegoda Nonell — have attributed the design to Antoni Gaudí. It appears that in 1905, Gaudí visited the Asland Portland Cement Factory being built at Clot del Moro (Castellar de n’Hug), invited by Eusebi Güell Bacigalupi (1846–1918), one of the project’s promoters. The architect stayed for two days at Joan Artigas’s house, where Artigas asked him for ideas to landscape the area around the fountain. It is believed that Gaudí made some sketches and later sent a builder from Park Güell to collaborate with local masons in the garden’s construction. Both the sketches and the project plans were lost in the 1939 fire that destroyed the Artigas factory.
In the 1950s, the Artigas family moved to Barcelona, and the garden was abandoned. A former labourer who had worked there as a young man later shared his recollections with the local historian Àngel Francàs, who published them in El Correo Catalán on August 14 and December 22, 1971.
Years later, the Gaudí Chair, the School of Architecture, and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia began researching the authorship of the garden. Joan Bassegoda, then director of the Gaudí Chair, formally attributed the original design of the gardens to Gaudí in an article published in La Vanguardia in 1989.
In 1992, the site underwent restoration, and today the gardens are open to the public. They are municipally owned and can be accessed via a stop on the Alt Llobregat Tourist Railway.