The landscape and history of Parc Ribalta in Castellón

For centuries, the land that now houses Parc Ribalta served as a passageway for people accessing the town and later as a cemetery. Following the arrival of the railway in 1862, the local government pushed for the creation of a garden in 1868 to beautify the area and welcome new travelers. The project involved a triangular plot of land that included the old cemetery and fields owned by private citizens. This work sought to beautify the city's most crowded point while also addressing a national demand to provide work for unemployed laborers.

Engineer Luis Alfonso Brull designed the park, with the municipal official Tomás Clará Ferrer in charge of the gardening. The project utilized as much of the original cemetery's trees as possible and included the transplanting of various pines from the Pinar del Grao. The resulting space, known as the paseo Ribalta or paseo Viejo, was eventually joined by another section designed by Brull, Salvador Fors, and Francisco Tirado. This latter area was initially called the parque de la Alameda before the construction of an obelisk in 1895 gave the complex its current unified identity.

The park takes its name from the Baroque painter Francisco Ribalta, though he was actually born in Solsona rather than Castellón. Since its inception, the park has been the epicenter of social and cultural life in the city, hosting numerous festivals, concerts, and sporting events. It has even inspired local art, including many paintings and literary works. Experts consider it the best preserved example of a 19th-century public park in the Comunidad Valenciana, maintaining its original structure and artistic heritage.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikimedia Commons