The Penha Snail Garden was the result of popular will. A petition with 2600 signatures and a proposal in the Participatory Budget with 9477 votes later, the new green space of Arroios and Penha de França is realized.
It should have been an 86-space parking lot, operated by EMEL, with a small leisure area. But a petition with around 2600 signaturesThe report, delivered in 2016 to the Lisbon Municipal Assembly, called for the requalification of this land - a wasteland where there were some trees, vegetation and informal constructions - and its restoration. transformation into a garden for the people of Arroios and Penha de França. At the same time, in the Participatory Budgeting (PB) edition of that year, a proposal was voted to create the then baptized Caracol da Penha Garden. Conceived by a citizens' movement, this idea has become the most voted ever in a PB - even to this day - with a total of 9477 votes. Lisbon City Council and EMEL then gave up the parking lot and started the detailed design of the garden together with the population.
From a preliminary proposal and with the involvement of the municipality and the citizens' movement, a participatory process was developed between 2017 and 2018 to arrive at a design and idea of the garden. The final design of the project was then entrusted to the NPK landscape architecture office. Once the execution project was done and the public tender was launched to find a contractor to carry out the work, it started. in December 2019by the construction company Alexandre Barbosa Borges and for close to two million eurosThe garden was scheduled to be completed by the end of 2021. However, the works were delayed and the garden was only completed in 2023. The inauguration took place on July 14.
On the day of the opening, there were those who passed in front of the Garden, already open, and were unsure if they could enter. The inauguration was scheduled for 6 pm, with the presence of the Mayor, Carlos Moedas, and an extensive entourage. There was no widely publicized invitation to the population, unlike other municipalities. There was only a discreet tweet from the Arroios Parish Council, but it was enough for dozens of people to show up and be part of the party. After all, it had been a work requested by the population and thought out together with the people.
With two entrances, one main in the parish of Arroios (Rua Marques da Silva) and the other in Penha de França (Rua Cidade de Cardiff), the Jardim do Caracol da Penha develops along a hillside, on an area of approximately one hectare. It has three levels. At the highest, we find an amphitheater with a beautiful viewpoint under the city and capacity for 80 people. On the next level, at an intermediate level, we find a large STAYING PLACE with a few flowerbeds, a row of benches set under a bower and facing the city, and a playground whose main attraction will be a snail-shaped slide (and which can be used by adults). At the lowest level, we have a woodlanda community garden and a small basketball court.
A kiosk still needs to be installedThis will be located on the middle tier and will have sanitary facilities; it will only be put in place in 2024. Penha's Caracol Garden includes around 250 new trees and over 25,000 small plantsAccording to the municipality, the most significant planting was done on the steeper slope at the top, where more than 90 zambujeiros were grown to help support the land. The garden also has bicycle parking at each of the entrances; and, thanks to a set of ramps, the new public and green space is almost all accessible.
The Penha Caracol Garden is open between 7 am and 9 pm.
