The Madrid Rio Park, featuring a total surface of 1.2 million square meters and over 40,000 square meters of sports facilities, opened fully to the public in April. The new green area hooks up the two banks of the Manzanares River through a 33-step walkway and along seven different districts.

The huge park offers a multitude of leisure, cultural, sport and stroll choices. Since its grand opening, lots of people have trickled in and it’s been the public the one that has opened the additional projects of a park that has dramatically changes the urban layout of the capital. Visitors can make out the lighting over the monumental Arganzuela Bridge, designed by Dominique Perrault, as well as the urban beach and the fountains at the Arganzuela Park, next to the ones already built over the Rey, Segovia and Toledo bridges. Together, they have pieced together one of the most sought-after nightly strolls in town. All green spaces are now open, with highlights for the Arganzuela and Matadero parks, and the new reforested area down the south mesh. New bridges and walkways, and others that were closed, have also opened, like the Invernadero Bridge, the runway that stretches from the Legazpi neighborhood all the way to the end of the Manzanares Avenue and that links this road to the Lineal Park in southern Manzanares. With these new services now in operation, Madrid residents and visitors could count on a park featuring a total surface of 1.2 million square meters and over 40,000 square meters of sports facilities, including 33 courts and rinks. There are 17 playgrounds for kids and three for adults. The new green area hooks up the two banks of the Manzanares River through a 33-step walkway and along seven different districts. A Balanced and Sustainable Project Madrid Rio is part of a new model for the sake of a more balanced and sustainable city that can offer better quality of life for its citizens. The project provides the burg with a huge lineal park from El Prado (northeast Madrid) to Getafe –a municipality south of the capital- that has included the creation of a beach next to the Matadero cultural project. It’s just about an urban development strategy based on three coordinated projects: the Calle 30 Project that brought about the burying of an old and unsafe circulation way that used to divide the city; the Madrid Rio Project, whose objective was locked on the recovery of traffic-released areas, and the Urban Renovation Project around the Manzanares River, set on the rehab of surrounding buildings. Madrid Rio hinges on five axes: the recovery of the river, the Salon de Pinos, the enhancement and building of green areas, the ludicrous axis and the urbanization of the zone. For city mayor Alberto Ruiz Gallardon, the Madrid Rio Project stands for a large-scale urban-regenerating operation “in a space destined to be a first-class tourist attraction, a watchtower over the monumental cornice, a meeting ground, for strolling, for leisure, sports and culture, but also for commercial purposes and job creation in which public initiative is the driving force to reel in private initiatives in this part of Madrid and put our smart money on it.” User’s Map For citizens and tourists to know all the elements around this green area, the steps, the location of the sports facilities and cultural venues, watchtowers, parks and gardens, user’s maps of the Madrid Rio Project have been published in English, Spanish, French and German. They are distributed in information desks across the Madrid Tourism Management and in Madrid Rio through an information outlet perched on Puente del Rey. The information is available on www.madrid.es/madridrio and at the official website of the City of Madrid Tourism Authority (www.esmadrid.com/madridrio). People with eye disabilities can download an audio file containing all the data.