Turia Gardens (Valencia)

Turia Gardens (Valencia)

The link

Turia Gardens official website 

Turia Gardens on Google maps. The bold green line is garden.

Turia river on Wikipedia

What it is

The Turia is a river which used to run through Valencia, Spain’s third largest city. It was prone to flooding. After ‘the great flood of Valencia’ in 1957 the city decided to divert the river, and repurpose the old riverbed.

The riverbed was made into a park, which follows the entire north side of the old city. It is 9 kilometers long, and house the Valencia museum of arts and sciences as well as Europe’s largest aquarium, L'Oceanogràfic.

What it means to me

My favorite memory of my vacation in Valencia is cycling up and down the Turia riverbed in summer weather. It’s spacious, green, and there’s things to do all over. Turia gardens is much lower than street level, and lush with green. It functions as a escape from city life – within the city itself.

The park was finished only in the 1980’s, after a public initiative to make the space a park instead of a highway or railway. The riverbed still functions for transportation: it’s often easier to walk across the park than to take a road bridge. The park connects the north side of the city quite well. It’s more functional for travel within the city than a highway would be!

If you find yourself in Valencia, you could do worse than spend a day in Turia gardens! I recommend renting a bike if you want to see the whole area.


Leonard