2. Miguel Primo de Rivera Park or Parque Grande
The history of this park starts in 1920, when the Municipality of Zaragoza decided to make use of the benefits given by Law to start the sewer and supply systems for the city and the covering of the river Huerva. Several years before, the Councillor Vicente Gálvez Sánchez and the Secretary of the City Council, Mariano Berdejo Casañal, promoted the idea of improving the appearance of the Cabezo de Buenavista (Buenavista Hillock) to turn it into a big green area. Finally, the architect Miguel Ángel Navarro and the above mentioned Mariano Berdejo, planned the project for the future park, which was passed by Royal Order on 22 February 1922. The works were contracted in 1924. The park contains Neptune Fountain or Princess Fountain (1833) by Tomás Llovet, which was placed at present day España Square, in the city center, during the 19th century. This fountain was built to commemorate Isabel II oath as heiress, and the inauguration took place in 1845, serving for supplying water to the people of Zaragoza until 1902 when it was replaced by the Monument to the Martyrs of Religion and the Homeland. There are replicas of Neptune´s Fountain, made by Pascual de Mena, at the Prado Boulevard in Madrid, but that of Zaragoza is less spectacular. The group is presided by the figure of Neptune with a trident on a decorative base with four dolphins serving as water jets. This beautiful fountain was forgotten for many years until 1946, when it was moved to its current site. Nearby, at the Botanical Garden, we find a work by Rafael Barnola, engineer of the Department of Parks and Gardens, who planned a water watch or clepsydra (1983) composed by three faces that clock the hours and minutes while the mechanism of the waterwheel advances moved by a water jet. This highly imaginative group joins usefulness with an aesthetic inspired by the Dadaist mechanism-sculptures of the period between wars.
The park is arranged around the San Sebastián Boulevard, from which secondary ways such as the Plátanos Promenade, Mariano Renovales or Bearneses Promenade start. The flow of water from a ditch makes the stroll more enjoyable. At the junction of these avenues with its central axis, Rafael Barnola placed a big ornamental fountain with changing jets that was first at Paraíso Square. As a complement, Barnola remodelled in 1991 its wide perspective, which makes us remember distributions used in 18th century gardens and parks, with bright waterfalls and zigzaging staircases that take us to the Monument to the King Alfonso the Battler (1925) by José Bueno. This monument consists of a statue surrounded by a lake, with a trail which allow visitors to have access to it. Many residents of Zaragoza and visitors enjoy taking pictures of it.
Scattered around the park, we can find busts of important local figures such as Joaquín Dicenta (1928) by Honorio Garcia Condoy, and Eusebio Blasco (1928) by Enrique Anel, planned to form part of a small fountain.