This green space, highly popular with local residents, is not just a park but also a thoroughfare and a square. That means it has lots of uses, which includes holding the weekly Tuesday market in the neighbourhood: Canyelles. Its luxuriant vegetation and a fountain of water, light and colour give it a special charm.
Carrer d’Antonio Machado, where the weekly neighbourhood market sets up its stalls, crosses the park from one end to the other. The sunniest part of the park is below this street. There is a large square (in fact, it is the Serra Martí Civic Centre roof) which turns into a large balcony over the Ronda de Dalt ring road.
Seen from here, the park resembles a large green and continuous rising meadow. The park entrance is very convenient: you can get there by lift, straight from the Canyelles metro station.
History
The park takes up the central part of the Canyelles estate and is a good example of restorative urban planning, as it improved the quality of the large area occupied by housing between Avinguda de la Guineueta Vella and Ronda de Dalt. It is named after the former Barcelona City Councillor, Josep Maria Serra i Martí.
Biodiversity
Some species of trees and palm trees play a prominent role in the park, not just because of their number and size but also their location, as they are aligned and ordered by level or grouped into small bosquets.
Some twenty fan palms, mostly aligned, and a group of eucalyptus trees near the fountain stand out. As you walk up the ramps between the flowerbeds you will come across lines of peppercorn trees, lime trees, jacarandas and tipu trees, to name a few species.
There are also ombus, grey poplars, white poplars, pink sirises, kurrajongs and southern nettle trees. Particularly noticeable among the shrubs are the blue plumbagos in the flowerbeds marking the limits to the upper part of the park. These offer truly lovely blossoms between the months of May and November.
Art and Architecture
The Font de Manuel de Falla, a fountain designed by Pedro Barragán (1994), has a set of light, water and sound that makes it a magic fountain. It is a large rectangular platform in an equally rectangular lake, with a longitudinal piece practically 20 metres above it over tubes that act as columns. Water cascades down from here, shoots up from the fountain jets and turns into vapour below and close to the large stones on one side of the lake.
In the middle of the park, on a large painted concrete pedestal, there stands a sculpture by Ignasi Farreras Casanovas: Alegrías (Joys, 1998). This sculptural piece, which expresses great movement, represents a flamenco dancer performing one of her twirls.
Landscaping and Design
Parc de Josep Maria Serra Martí is laid out according to the lie of the land, with big banked flowerbeds between which run a number of serpentine ramps that create the various itineraries and leisure areas. Its access paths have been adapted.
The flowerbeds support a large number of trees, most of which are well aligned, which provide fairly abundant shaded spaces in the upper half of the park.
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- Phone number
- Tel.: 010
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- Titularity
- Public center
- Address:
- C Miguel Hernández, 16
- Districte:
- Nou Barris
- Neighborhood:
- Canyelles
- City:
- Barcelona