The new Vila Fria Urban Park, in Porto Salvo, was opened and inaugurated last week. In the near future, it will be connected by bike paths not only to the Paço de Arcos station, but also to two other urban parks - the Poetas and Perdizes parks.
The municipality of Oeiras has a new Urban Park. Stay in Vila Friain the parish of Porto SalvoIn the near future it will be connected to the Business Cycle path and the Paço de Arcos railway station, but also to the well known Parque dos Poetas. The Urban Park of Vila Fria has about 22,000 square meters for strolling, playing and exercising.
Representing an investment of 898.8 thousand eurosThe Vila Fria Urban Park offers 810 meters of pedestrian paths, a 200 square meters children's area, and also an open-air gymnasium - all surrounded by a lot of greenery and recreational areas. The Park is inserted in a land that was available in the urban mesh of Vila Fria, presenting an irregular plan because it was forced to surround the SIMAS installations, the intermunicipal water and sanitation company of the Oeiras and Amadora counties.
The Park was inserted in a terrain where Nature already grew freely, and the species that made sense for the project were kept and others were planted. The space has a small wood where several native (autochthonous) species of our country can be found, which are therefore adapted to our dry climate in summer, requiring little maintenance and little water consumption.
However, if a part of the Park has a more natural aspect, other areas are landscaped and have vegetation watered by an automatic system. The various trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants along the pedestrian paths help define them and also hide the built environment, such as the SIMAS structures. Some vegetation also plays an important role in the sloping areas of the Park, helping with the risk of erosion.
The Urban Park of Vila Fria has several resting areas, with benches and tables, that the population can occupy. There is also a chapel that already existed in the area of the park and was integrated into it. The pedestrian connections of the Urban Park with the surrounding area are ensured, with no gaps, with the bordering streets, as in the case of the connections with Rua Carlos Paião (this is the main entrance, and there are two bus stops for Carris Metropolitana), Rua Ary dos Santos and the connection to Rua Rui de Mascarenhas.
Almost the entire Urban Park is accessible to all people, except the viewpoint areaThis is behind the chapel and where a swing for children and adults has been placed. It is in this area that you will find a walkway, which gives access to Rua Artur Moura.
In the children's area, we tried to place a equipment that looks like it is made from natural materials that you would find in a forest. The space for gymnastics and fitness is developed in one of the central nuclei of the park, which together with the children's zone, are the two main dynamizing and attraction poles of the Vila Fria Urban Park.
O Vila Fria Urban Park will, in the near future, be connected to the Oeiras Business Cycle Path, which will be extended from the Oliveiras Roundabout to the new green space. Others are also in the design and construction phase. two sections of bike path: one between Vila Fria and Leceia, in the parish of Barcarena, and another between Leceia and Paço de Arcos. The tender procedure for the section Vila Fria-Leceiawhich will be done on Rua da Fonte, is already concluded, with the contract to have been awarded for 1.15 million Euros to the Protecnil company.
With the completion of these sections, the Business Cycle Path will connect the three business parks in the municipality to the Paço de Arcos train station and, along its route, it will pass through three green areas in the territory: the Parque dos Poetas, the Parque das Perdizes and now the Vila Fria Urban Park. For its part, the municipality of Oeiras currently has 770 hectares of green infrastructures and aims to reach 1000 hectares by 2050. For this growth, it is betting on autochthonous vegetation, which requires less maintenance and is less demanding in water consumption.
The inauguration of the Vila Fria Urban Park took place on Friday morning, June 30th, and was attended by the Mayor of Oeiras, Isaltino Morais, the Alderman of Municipal Works, Joana Almeida, and Fátima Rabuge, Director of the Municipal Works Department, among other members of the Oeiras Council."A garden, a grove, a playground, it's all this together. And at the same time it is a repository of representative species of Mediterranean vegetation. Whoever does these pedestrian circuits sees species that are scattered everywhere and that are concentrated here."commented Isaltino Morais. "We also have a fitness park and a viewpoint here that allows us to enjoy the beauty of a significant part of the Oeiras territory, but we also see the Sintra Mountains in the background."
The President of Oeiras said that, from this viewpoint, it is also possible to appreciate a "harmony in terms of spatial planning"This is a development that already integrates some towers. "We are working to have more towers in our county"because, according to Isaltino, "towers are one of the best ways to preserve the environment and safeguard land that would otherwise be waterproofed". About the Vila Fria Urban Park, the mayor of Oeiras said that "it's very hard for anyone not to like it here" and that this new leisure area is the result of "study, taste, sensitivity and experience".
Isaltino Morais wanted to leave another note: "The more city is made, the greater the investment of the municipality, whether with quality buildings or with intervention in the urban space, the more the heritage is valued", said, explaining that "the investment that was made here will have threefold repercussions" in the housing around the Urban Park. "If we make an investment of one million euros here, this will have a reflection of three million in all those buildings. Which means that an apartment that costs 250,000 will cost 300. Immediately, this park will increase the value of all the buildings that exist here." But the municipality itself will also have a return on investment "in the long run" with the "IMI growth"because "What counts is not only the property; it is also what is around it, it is the transportation, the gardens, the equipment that exist, it is the urban image; everything counts for the valuation of the property".. "As you see, this is a system of communicating vessels."
