The Pasatiempo Park is a public encyclopedic park located in Betanzos ( La Coruña ) designed by Juan García Naveira . The park has an old area and a recently built area and currently houses ponds, green areas, an open-air auditorium, underground caves and a children's play area.
The encliclopedic park project was devised by Juan García Naveira , who had achieved a certain fortune during his stay in Argentina as an Indian. Along with his brother Jesús, they are credited with numerous contributions to the Brigantine people such as the school (1914]), the asylum (1912), a public laundry ([1902), the People's House and the Pasatiempo Park itself.
The construction of the park began in 1893 and would last until 1914 although it would continue to be remodeled years later with the incorporation of new elements. With the death of Juan García Naveira, the park stopped expanding, since at no time during his life did he stop adding sculptures and other elements to this place.
Description of the park in 1914 Edit
At its inauguration, the Pastime covered an area of ??land four times the size of what is currently preserved. Formerly, to enter the park you had to go through the Box Office whose building was preserved until the 1990s and whose income was dedicated to the conservation of the park and the Asylum. After going through the ticket office, a large gate like the one found in the Palace of Versailles was next to it . The door, in the lower part, was guarded by two lions , copies of those that guard the tomb of Pope Clemente XIII in Vatican City , and which are currently in the Santa Cueva de Covadonga ( Asturias ), like a good part of the ornamental elements in this area.
It was a new and unique initiative of its kind, the forerunner of today 's theme parks , although within the pedagogical aspect of the park stands the interpretation of the place as an initiatory journey to look Masonic . On a total area of ??about nine hectares, it combined a large garden on the flat part of the landof recreation, with varied vegetation, ponds and walks, next to the Pasatiempo area itself, constituted by successive terraces that climbed the skirt of the mountain, with statues, reliefs and constructions that sought to reflect places and events from all over the world, forming what was called an authentic encyclopedic park at the service of the illustration of the town of Betanzos and its visitors and that appeared in the travel guides of its time. New materials and an aesthetic between modernist and romantic were used in the construction through the distribution of spaces with numerous elements related to universal culture, inspired by the vision that Juan García had been given by the different trips he made.
The door flanked by the two great lions, communicated with the avenue of the Roman Emperors , with marble busts, and with the avenue of the Alamos , with statues of famous writers. In these gardens, with a vegetable labyrinth , a greenhouse, numerous fountains, ponds and statues, a statue of the brothers themselves was erected, today in the main square of Betanzos.
In the upper part the structures were distributed in five levels that were reached through stairways and subterranean passages imitating prehistoric caves, in which the figures of two dinosaurs are still preserved , and with large esplanades and viewpoints of the city. On the lower level the Retiro Pond was built , with a central island in which there were classical figures, bordered by a careful mosaic with fish motifs . On the walls of the pond, completely decorated with shells of different mollusks , there are reliefs representing a hot air balloon and a kind of train machine. On one of the walls that separate one level from another, large reliefs were sculpted representing a trip to Egypt , with the pyramid of Cheops , the Chinese wall and the Panama Canal . In the center of this wall the mouth of a complex crisscrossed of caves opened, through which one ascended to the upper level, with a wide terrace featuring a huge lion. From here you accessed the highest area of ??the park, converted into a viewpoint.
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