"This park is strongly connected with the history of Barcelona.
It is situated in the grounds where Felipe V (...) built a great military citadel to control the city.
In order to obtain the necessary ground,
it was necessary to demolish the walls on the extreme north-west of the city
together with 1,262 houses in the district of la Ribera.
Almost one century and a half after, in 1869,
and with the aim of obtaining the support of the industrial bourgeoisie in Barcelona,
General Prim - whose equestrian statue can be seen in the park -
handed over the citadel to the city of Barcelona
on the condition that the grounds were to be destined to a public park.
The recovery of this land permitted the creation of a large green area
which was very necessary in the increasingly overcrowded Barcelona
during the time of the industrial development.
It was necessary to create areas where people could 'breathe',
which was very well defined in the slogan for the project by Josep Fontsere:
'Gardens are for the city as lungs are for the human body',
a criteria that today seems evident,
but at the end of the nineteenth century was not so clear."
bcn.cat
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