The coming of Don Bosco to Barcelona led his Salesian devotees to decide to dedicate the summit of the landmark mountain of Tibidabo to the cult of the Sacred Heart. A decisive influence in this respect was that of Dorotea de Chopitea, who was always so generous about everything to do with the Church. And so, on 3 July 1886, a small sanctuary was consecrated. In the month of May two years later, the queen regent María Cristina knelt there, when she visited the city on the occasion of the International Exposition. Mayor Reus i Taulet had taken advantage of the event to erect a wooden pavilion nearby to house his royal guest and to build the Carretera de l’Arrebassada, (which linked Barcelona with Sant Cugat).

Doctor Salvador Andreu, popularly known as “The Tablets” because of the efficacious cough remedy his pharmaceutical company made, was nurturing an ambitious project to turn the summit into an amusement park, to take advantage of the fascinating panoramic view. In 1899 he managed to form a limited company for the purpose.

In 1901, the Tramvia Blau, the Blue Tram, was already operating, as was the funicular railway, the first in Spain. At the same time, he agreed to donate six thousand square metres of the land to the Salesians so that they could build a large church, the construction of which was to be paid for by the contributions of the faithful. The foundation stone was laid on 28 December 1902, and the architect was Enric Sagnier.

The first great attraction was the overhead monorail, which began to entertain visitors in 1915. Meanwhile, though, many other facilities had sprung up, such as a luxurious café-restaurant and a rotund water tower, by Amargós, both in the Modernista style. Even a casino. The benefactor Fabra had donated an observatory. It need hardly be said that the place soon attracted a large number of celebrities, who all declared how wonderful it was to find so many attractions in so little space.

As for Sagnier’s church, construction went ahead at a fine pace. In 1934 the great bronze figure of the Sacred Heart was ready. But when the (un)Civil War broke out it was destroyed. The new image, sculpted by Marés, was finally put in place in 1961.

Old photographs