Located in the district of Horta Guinardó, the Tower and Labyrinth of Horta are in the middle of the park, a 9.1 hectare plot of land bounded by Carrer Germans Desvalls, Passeig dels Castanyers, Camí de Valldaura and Turó del Castell del Fortí. The main access to the park is from Passeig dels Castanyers, opposite the Horta Velodrome. Located on a former watchtower, the complex consists of a magnificent tower surrounded by gardens in the centre of which is a maze of topiary. The Tower of the Marquises of Alfarràs is a large nave-shaped building that develops around an original defensive construction with a circular ground plan made of pebbles and mortar. It has an irregular floor plan and different attached bodies, the tower's structure in elevation comprises a ground floor, mezzanine, main floor and attic under a set of sloping roofs. Attached to the central body, two secondary bodies of semicircular development formed in elevation by a floor and a storey cover the access courtyard to the building, circular in shape and delimited by a high brick fence. The façades of the building give the complex an interesting play of perspectives through the unusual architectural volumes that characterise it. These façades structure their openings on vertical axes with a regular rhythm: pointed horseshoe arches on the ground floor, trefoil arches on the mezzanine, poly-lobed twin windows on the main floor and tetralobular oculi on the attic. The façade walls are made of brickwork covered with sgraffito work that forms a filigree of Arabic-inspired elements. The railings of the balconies and windows are made of wrought iron. The main doorway, consisting of a large pointed horseshoe arch, is framed by four Arabised Corinthian half-columns whose entablature supports the central balcony slab, crowned by a muqarnas arch and the coat of arms of the Desvalls family. The building is crowned by a moulded cornice that serves as the base of a barbican with battlements that frames the entire building. In general terms, this house follows the exotic trends of the 19th century, the voice of the orientalist fashion of the time. The interiors, nowadays in bad conditions, preserve the original floor slabs, with wooden beams and vaults. The park, which is the oldest still standing in the Principality, was originally designed in neoclassical style. The gardens are laid out on a sloping terrain, on five large stepped terraces that slope down to the Horta district and have a sloping outlook. The design of these gardens was intended to emulate the most famous Italian gardens of the time: monumental staircases and ramps, water features scattered throughout and a wealth of plants, sculpture and architectural ornamentation. Each of the elements that make up the park and its decoration exudes an illustrated background closely linked to mythology and the classical world. On the first terrace, next to the tower, is the domestic garden, a grove of shrubs and flowers built by Elies Rogent in 1880 and accessed from the tower itself and from the shrub garden. The latter consists of a symmetrical garden of shrubs cut into geometric shapes crowned by a double flight of steps and accessed through a gate flanked by stone pillars surmounted by two marble lions. These lions give their name to the small square of the lions, which radially articulates the paths leading to the next terrace. The second terrace contains a laundry room and a grove known as the Flower Garden. The main feature of the third terrace is the labyrinth, made up of a line of more than 750 m of cypress trees cut into a complex network of paths for leisure and play. The labyrinth is decorated with reliefs and sculptures linked to love and the myth of Ariadne and Theseus. Right next to the labyrinth, a leafy grove contains the grotto of the Minotaur. A large double staircase containing a small grotto with sculptures relating to the myth of Echo and Narcissus over a large circular pool leads to the fourth terrace. This terrace, ornamented with various fountains and galleries of busts, is notable for the presence of two circular temples dedicated to Ariadne and Danae. This terrace is the starting point of a large staircase interrupted by two flat bridges that span the difference in level of the Romanesque canal, a long bank of water that contains, at its end, the island of love. When you return to the staircase, you reach the fifth terrace, whose perspective is centred by the Pavilion of the Nine Nymphs, a quadrangular Ionic construction whose façade is reflected on a large quadrangular wash-house. Crowning the park and closing this perspective is the fountain of the Nymph Egeria. At the bottom of the valley is the Romantic Garden, articulated by a series of ivy flowerbeds in the middle of the wood. This garden is enlivened by a series of architectural elements linked to leisure, such as the false cemetery and the hermit's cave, the farmer's hut, the waterfall on stones, the canal jetty and the Japanese garden. The origins of the complex date back to the 11th century, when the Sobirana Tower, a circular defensive construction made of stone, was built. However, it seems that from the 12th century onwards, a series of habitable annexes were built around this tower, of which little remains. The remoteness of its origins means that there is no documentary information about the owners of the tower until the end of the 14th century, when it belonged to Pere Marquès, notary of Barcelona. From then on, the tower and its outbuildings passed through many hands, so it is assumed that the building was gradually transformed. However, the greatest transformation of the estate took place at the end of the 18th century, at the hands of Josep Antoni Desvalls, Marquis of Llupià and Alfarràs. During this period, between 1791 and 1794, the master builder Jaume Valls and the engineer and sculptor Domenico Bagutti were in charge of designing the garden, which was adorned with sculptures by Bagutti himself. In the mid-19th century, the old watchtower was completely enveloped by a large building with palatial pretensions in keeping with the taste and fashion of the time. In fact, the tower was enlarged with outbuildings in the Arab style, giving rise to the current external configuration of the building. In 1853, the architect Elies Rogent remodelled part of the gardens and built the canal that crosses the estate on the north side. In 1967 the Desvalls family exchanged their estate for some land on Avinguda Diagonal. After a long process of improving the garden, in 1971 it opened its doors as a public garden. In 1986, the Barcelona Heritage Rehabilitation Workshop School moved into the side of the building in order to restore it. In 1994, European funds were used for a new restoration of the complex. Today, despite its partial state of ruin, the building houses a nature school run by the Barcelona Parks and Gardens.