Tibidabo, Collserola... and Turó de l’Àguila? The names of the Barcelona mountain

Abstract

The old meaning of the generic coll (hill) causes disorientation in most Catalan speakers. This has a cartographic translation consisting of expelling from the peaks the colls of medieval origin, moving them to places of passage between mountains. This fact has a paradigmatic example in the case of Collserola (Barcelona), a place name that many locate on the path that leads to the hermitage of Sant Medir. In this case, the appearance of an alternative place name, Tibidabo, greatly facilitated the alteration of the original meaning of the old Coll s’Erola (summit landing). Tibidabo was a creation of the monastery of Sant Jeroni de la Vall d’Hebron, of which we already find written testimony in 1634. There is still a third toponym competing for the same space, Àguila, which some assume is the oldest and which would have been replaced by Collserola. Perhaps it is not the same summit, but rather the mountain of the Fabra observatory.