The City Council inaugurates a natural space raised over the M-30: the Parque Atlético de Madrid. This event marks the culmination of the Madrid Río project, an urban development plan that seeks to revitalize the area around the Manzanares, where the Mahou brewery and the Vicente Calderón stadium, a temple for the city’s colchoneros, used to be located.
The layout of the park
The new park is divided into three zones. The first will be a path surrounded by pine trees and accessed from the San Isidro bridge. It has been laid out next to the Manzanares to join the two sections of Madrid Río to the north and south.
The second, the former location of the Vicente Calderón, will be the central area of the park. In it we find a track for runners, located around a meadow with rounded edges. Finally there is a pedestrian area on the Paseo de la Virgen del Puerto, with stairs and a ramp to make the space more accessible.
More than 1,000 new trees
The Madrid City Council has planted 9,000 shrubs, 1,200 trees and 4,500 square meters of grass in the vicinity of the Manzanares. Thus, the new Madrid Río park has become one of the reference places to escape the extreme temperatures in summer.
This year, Greenpeace published images showing the difference in temperature between green areas and neighborhoods with hardly any vegetation in the capital. The organization found that mature trees can reduce ambient heat by up to 20 degrees, and thus improve the quality of life for residents when the summer season arrives. This thermal contrast highlights the need to incorporate more spaces like Madrid Río.
An area for athletes as a tribute to the Calderón
In addition to green areas ideal for walking, the Madrid City Council has introduced training facilities. The most striking of these is the athletics track that has been built on the site where the Vicente Calderón used to stand.
Next to the track, where the stadium field used to be, there is an urn as a tribute, with an armchair from the old building; two photographs of the first and last goals scored there; a poster of the first match held there and a slab showing the silhouette of the stadium.