The Puigcerdá was the only monitor ever commissioned in the history of the Spanish Armada, and was acquired to defend the estuary of Bilbao and the coast of Cantabria during the Third Carlist War, at a price of 840,000 pesetas.

The acquisition of Puigcerdá was approved on August 25, 1874, by General Serrano and Minister of Marine Rafael Rodriguez Arias.

By a Royal Order dated October 30, 1874 it was ordered that the ship be given the name: "...Puigcerdá, thus perpetuating in the Navy one of the memorable events of this civil war that unfortunately divides us"During the Third Carlist War, Puigcerdá defended the province of Vizcaya against Carlist troops.

After the war the ship was laid up at Ferrol with the floating battery Duque de Tetuán, and was decommissioned in 1890.

With the breaking out of the Spanish–American War in 1898, Puigcerdá was recommissioned and rearmed, and dispatched for the defense of the Ria de Vigo.