Paseo de la Isla, Riverside park in Burgos, Spain.
Paseo de la Isla is a romantic-style promenade on the right bank of the Arlanzón in Burgos, about 800 m long and 120 m wide, running from the Puente de Malatos to the Puente de Castilla. Its central pedestrian walk is flanked by gardens and a notable botanical collection, with monuments such as the Arcos de Castilfalé and a late-19th-century cascade built with stalactites from the Atapuerca cave.
Gardens were first laid out after the Napoleonic occupation of 1810, replacing old servitude paths and stony ground. In 1836 the central pedestrian walk was traced at a cost of 6,909 reales, and in July 1849 the carriage and horse ride from the Arco de Santa María to the Malatos bridge was approved. The walk was widened in March 1868.
The name comes from the small islands formed between the Arlanzón and a mill channel, now covered. Wool merchants once washed fleeces near the Malatos bridge, and the spot was called Paseo de los Lavadores. Since 2021, open-air panels along the central lane show Asís G. Ayerbe's portraits of winners of the Castilla y León Critics' Prize.
The promenade runs about 800 m along the right bank of the Arlanzón, from the Puente de Malatos to the Puente de Castilla, with a central pedestrian lane and a parallel lane for cars and riders. The 2011 renovation added lighting, new urban furniture, playground swings and a Bicibur bike point; information panels on the plant species and on the promenade's history line the route.
At the end of the 19th century a cascade was built using stalactites and stalagmites from the Atapuerca cave, with a grotto opened behind the pond; two mermaid figures support the rockwork. Between 1929 and 2019 the Romanesque doorway of the Cerezo de Río Tirón hermitage stood here before being moved to San Juan de Burgos.
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