Index Anillo Verde de Vitoria-Gasteiz

Preparation of the park of Olarizu

Initial status
In the mid-90s, Olarizu park consisted of the meadows of the old farm and was managed by the Parks and Gardens Service of the Town Hall of Vitoria-Gasteiz as an urban park in accordance with the original design. It was placed in an eminently agricultural environment and was crossed by a large number of pathways that linked the city with neighbouring villages and the Mountains. The general state of the area was not altogether satisfactory as its proximity to the city was generating a disorderly influx of people and vehicles with the consequent negative effects on the environment and landscape.

The development process
As of 1995, the Park of Olarizu became part of the Green Belt. Since then, work has been done to prepare the environment, foster an orderly use by the public and especially, promote environmental training and education.

The actions taken in the Park were as follows:

• Refurbishment and development of the old Dehesa de Olarizu as the new headquarters for CEA and to convert this into the main Information Centre for the Green Belt and a multipurpose space for environmental education and training (classroom, exhibition room, information centre and environmental documentation, etc.)
• Creation of a new space known as the Olarizu Market Gardens, on 58.77 m2 of agricultural land and degraded meadows, made up of different areas and equipped with the range of different buildings and installations given over to training activities in horticulture and ecological agriculture: nurseries, ecological vegetable gardens, arboretum, pool, glass greenhouse, etc.
• Development of meadows for creating new sitting areas
• Improvement of access points, tracks and signposting
• Plantations
• Integrated maintenance tasks of spaces and equipment

Future plans
The following actions are planned for the future:

• Extension of the park, through the annexing of new land in order to increase the surface area given over to ecological vegetable gardens, to provide space for the municipal nurseries and to create an arboretum or collection of species of different planned communities. All these initiatives will be taken in order to consolidate the Olarizu park as the main educational area of the Green Belt in subjects relating to the world of plants
• Actions to improve and environmentally restore the Cerro de Olarizu which, especially in steeply sloping areas, show clear signs of degradation
• Creation of a botanic garden