The Parque de Maria Luisa is not only a part of the cultural wealth, but also the most popular public garden, recognized as the "green lungs" of Seville, where it is so pleasant to be in contact with nature, play sports, play with children and just relax. …
Maria Louise, Infanta and Duchess of Montpensier, after whose name the park is named, settled in Seville in 1849, after the dukes bought the palace of San Telmo in the Andalusian capital. A garden was laid out on the ground around the palace in accordance with the European landscape design of the mid-19th century. In 1893, Maria Luisa donated to the city half of the San Telmo Gardens in the area from the Guadalquivir promenade to the Plaza de España, which was formerly the Marianne Gardens.
Maria Luisa Park was opened before the Ibero-American Exhibition on April 18, 1914, together with the Plaza de España. For three years, the architect Anibal Gonzalez and the French landscape designer Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier worked on the transformation of the garden, adding the Lotus Pond, Lions Fountain, Pizarro Avenue. After the exhibition, work on the design of the park and the Plaza de España continued until 1929, new objects in the Moorish style, inlaid with tiles, statues and fountains were installed.
The park in its present form covers an area of 34 hectares and boasts many birds that have settled here, including peacocks, green parrots and various songbirds, swans, ducks and, of course, pigeons, patiently waiting for grains and bread from resting. The vegetation is dominated by palms, eucalyptus, cypresses, magnolias, acacia trees, myrtles, orange trees, Mediterranean pines, flower beds are also laid out, and some gazebos are hidden under vines. In addition to natural characteristics, the park is characterized by small architectural forms - ponds, fountains, statues, gazebos, alleys, monuments to the poet Becker and the writer Miguel Cervantes. In the Plaza de España, you can visit the museums of folk art and archeology and the military history museum, located in the pavilions built for the exhibition.
