Alcazar Garden, garden in Balboa Park, San Diego, United States
Alcazar Garden is a formal garden in Balboa Park, San Diego, patterned after the gardens of Alcázar Castle in Seville. Its sloping ground is laid out in geometric beds bordered by low, clipped dark green hedges, with a broad bed of reddish flowers in the foreground. Behind the hedges rises a light tan wall pierced by a row of rounded arches, and tall palms and rounded trees stand among the beds.
The garden was first created around 1915 as Montezuma Garden for the Panama-California Exposition. In 1935, architect Richard Requa redesigned it after the courtyards of the Alcázar in Seville, adding the fountains and benches that still define the space.
Visitors often pause at the benches to trace the turquoise, yellow, and green tile patterns, which came from California workshops and give the garden the feel of a Spanish courtyard. Today the space is mainly used for small wedding ceremonies, and you can sometimes see a couple exchanging vows in front of the central fountain while park visitors pass by.
The ground is flat and the paths are wide enough for wheelchairs and strollers, making it easy to move through the whole space. Visit in the late morning or early afternoon, when the sunlight brings out the colors of the tiles and the pergola offers a cool place to pause.
After decades of use, the decorative tiles had cracked so badly that in 2008 a group of volunteers replaced nearly two thousand pieces by hand, matching the original colors from old California catalogs. Look closely at the fountains and you can spot where the new tiles sit beside older ones that still show their original glaze.
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