Plaza Zabala, Historic square in Ciudad Vieja, Montevideo, Uruguay.

Plaza Zabala is a square in the Ciudad Vieja of Montevideo, laid out obliquely on a rotated block that breaks the district's checkerboard grid. The French landscaper Édouard-François André designed its winding paths, which skirt broad lawns with flower beds and varied trees, and it is the only Montevideo square that keeps its perimeter iron railings. Gothic-style fittings include lamps mounted three to a column and a drinking fountain with a hanging cup.

The site was occupied by the Fuerte Grande, the first building raised during the city's founding, until dictator Lorenzo Latorre ordered its demolition by decree in 1878 to create a public square. The plot then lay as a wasteland for twelve years, and the square was inaugurated on 31 December 1890. The equestrian statue of founder Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, by Lorenzo Coullaut Valera with architect Pedro Muguruza Otaño, followed on 27 December 1931.

The square is named after Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, the Spanish military officer who founded Montevideo; the street ringing it, Circunvalación Durango, recalls Durango in Biscay, his birthplace. The equestrian statue by Lorenzo Coullaut Valera, with architect Pedro Muguruza Otaño, was inaugurated on 27 December 1931. Look for the Gothic-style furnishings: lamps mounted three to a column, a drinking fountain with a hanging cup, and the octagonal iron railing.

The square is enclosed by its original perimeter iron railings, the only ones still standing on a Montevideo square, with gates giving access. The surrounding street is Circunvalación Durango. From the centre, water of the Río de la Plata or the bay can be seen toward three of the four sides.

The square follows a diagonal layout that breaks from the grid pattern of the surrounding streets, something that becomes clear as you approach from the waterfront side. This orientation creates sight lines through the old quarter that you do not find anywhere else nearby.