Parque de Cabecera

Cabecera Park, some 334,000 square metres of green space offering the ample shade of pine trees, boat trips and bars in which to enjoy tapas in the spring sun. A small hill located within the park also offers splendid views of the city. Next to the Park, the recently-inaugurated Bioparc offers an environmental alternative in which to spend an excellent day in the company of lemurs, zebras, elephants and lions within an atmosphere that takes us directly to the heart of Africa.

The park covers over a kilometre of the former bed of the River Turia, in an area between the edge of the city and the surroundings. The idea for the park was to turn this space into a riverside wood, typical of the environs of Mediterranean rivers, blending vegetation, topography and water. This strategy helped to solve the transition between the rigid embankments of the River Turia, built in the 18th century to protect the city from flash floods, and the natural riverbed upstream. The water, the vegetation, the topography and the dry stone walls are the structuring features on which the concept of the park is based.

The layout is a reference to the sinuous shapes of the little islands that formed when the river rose. Depending on the character of the different areas of the park, these islands are small hills on dry land covered in vegetation, slopes that enter the water or true islands in the lake. The oval lookout hill, the highest point of the park, constitutes its visual landmark and solves the difficult change in direction in the old river bed, which has a 90º bend before being channelled through the entire city down to the sea.

Parque de Cabecera Map