Ramón Fontestad Park

The Ramón Fontestad Park is located at the eastern end of Rocafort, a town located in the northern region of the historic Valencian Huerta (L’Horta Nord). The park is projected on a plot of land between the urban center and the landscape of the historic orchard. The northern boundary is formed by one of the most important elements of the traditional irrigation system: the Reial Séquia de Montcada. This irrigation canal is the first to take water from the Turia River and irrigates almost all of l’Horta Nord.

Starting from this exceptional position and once assimilated the enormous importance of the historical and patrimonial baggage of the place, the park is conceived as a huge balcony over the orchard. This new green space acts as a mediator between the city and the orchard, dignifying this urban edge that until recently remained abandoned, enhancing connectivity between the residents of the municipality and its heritage landscape.

The design of the park is based on Rocafort’s stonemasonry past when Rocafort and Godella’s quarries provided stones for the construction of most of the historical Valencian buildings. The introduction of small-scale topographic games, inspired by old quarries from the past, as well as the topographic elevations proposed in the park, serve to articulate routes, different types of activities, vegetation, etc. In addition, this conception of topographics allows to creation of several viewpoints for the contemplation of the magnificent orchard landscape that extends in front of the park.

The Rocafort park masterplan contains cultural, healthy, playful, hostelry, and functional uses, that involve the creation of playgrounds, installation of street workouts to promote a healthy way of living, spaces for citizen’ meetings, an amphitheater, a bar, and public toilets. The development of these requirements on the project makes it function as a space for coexistence where anyone, despite age, gender o mobility can explore and enjoy the environment. All the users’ needs are satisfied by a consecution of non-exclusive spaces, that offer multiple and different possibilities.

To achieve the task of configuring those inclusive spaces, children’s games are integrated into different areas of the park: near the main entrance, next to the picnic area, and the future cafeteria. Mixed with this equipment, other areas of the park contain climbing walls, intergenerational playgrounds, recreational spaces, or a complete circuit of healthy equipment.

The different spaces of the park are structured by a network of paths and trails, in different sizes and materials, that allow visitors to cross and explore the park through multiple itineraries. In the same way, the vegetation integrated into the spaces between the pedestrian network functions as a cohesive element of the whole project, articulating the different principal areas of the park, such as the amphitheater or the playground located next to the main entrance.

The green element has been designed as a replication of an autochthonous Mediterranean forest, with a predominance of tree species such as pines (Pinus halepensis and Pinus pinea) and kermes oaks (Quercus coccifera). This high vegetation is mixed with shrubs and aromatic and herbaceous plants, such as lentisk (Pistacia lentiscus) or rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus). Occasionally, allochthonous species, adapted to the Mediterranean climate, are used to provide color, like the Jacaranda and Ceiba speciosa trees along the main paths that start on the main entrance. Furthermore, this kind of species is used also to highlight some points of the park, acting like landmarks due to their unique size or the color of their leaves in autumn, such as with trees like Ginkgo biloba.

On the other hand, the proximity to the orchard and the Acequia Real de Moncada has been taken into account, using riverside in the area next to these historical landscape elements. It means the use of trees that belong to native moist environments, such as Fraxinus angustifolia and Celtis occidentalis, accompanied by Tamarix gallica and Nerium Oleander.

In addition to the shade provided by the vegetation, the Ramón Fontestad Park is equipped with an “artificial” shade, created in one of the main paths that articulate the park, to deal with the hot and shiny days of summer in Valencia. This is possible through the construction of a pergola, which consists of a light galvanized steel structure covered with climbing plants like Bougainvillea and Jasminum. The use of this last plant and the existence of the pergola pay homage to national poet Antonio Machado, who wrote about how he enjoyed the garden of Villa Amparo, in Rocafort, during the Spanish Civil War.

Culture, as it is seen, is a very important issue in the conception of the park. A large area is then created, that materializes into the amphitheater and in the considerable width of the main entrance. These spaces are where the different cultural activities take place when the municipality or its citizens need them.

The amphitheater represents the heart and soul of the park’s spaces. It emerges from one of the elevations where the Mediterranean forest takes place, looking like an authentic stone quarry, with the historical orchard and the Reial Séquia de Montcada as a backdrop. A multitude of activities can take place here, such as concerts, events, or theatrical performances. Furthermore, this space functions as a place to stay and rest, becoming a natural viewpoint from which to contemplate the beauty of the historical landscape of the Horta Nord region.

At last, but not least, the park also has an outstanding educational and informative proposal. The sign of all elements (plants, landscape, etc.) across the site, allows the visitors to understand and discover the particularities (especially the botanical description of the vegetation) of the park. The signage is the last detail of the new park in Rocafort, that makes it possible to unify cultural heritage, health, society union, and care of the environment modestly but, at the same time, representing a crucial space for the community and a cultural claim for the whole region.