A visit to El Calvario Park - Part 1 - El Parnaso

Last weekend, I was finally able to visit a place in my city that has been on my bucket list for years. It is a park located in the center of the city on a hill called El Calvario. The park, for many years, had a reputation for being a dangerous place to visit, and it was the main reason why I had never been there. But in recent years, the mayor's office of the city restored its spaces, and also now there is police surveillance in the park.

So when a friend called me to ask if I wanted to do a guided tour of the park, I said yes. And last Saturday, with my husband and some friends, we visited it.

The park is known as El Calvario Park because it is on the hill of the same name, an emblematic site in the history of the city since colonial times. But the real name of the park has been changing over the years. When the park was created, at the end of the 19th century, by orders of President Antonio Guzmán Blanco, it was called Paseo Guzmán Blanco. Shortly after, when there was a change of government, it was called Paseo Independencia, and the most recent change of name was to Parque Ezequiel Zamora, as it is the name of the park nowadays.

One of the best-known ways to access this park is by climbing the steps of El Calvario.

Our guided tour started at the base of the staircase. There are 94 steps or a few fewer, depending on where you start to climb them.

I wanted to have made a more wide plan in the photo of the stairs, but they are in a very busy avenue where the main avenues of the city center converge.

This is the view in front of the steps, so you have a picture of where they are, and although it was Saturday and the traffic was not chaotic, the sidewalks in this part of the city always have street vendors, motorized and not the best place to take pictures with a cell phone.

Once we had caught our breath after climbing the stairs, we began our tour of the park.

The first place we reached was the Cacique Carapaica square. Where there is a huge sculpture of this character from history. I think the sculpture doesn't fit very well with the figure of the native Indians, by the way. But Carapaica, on this hill, led the clashes of the Indians who inhabited the valley of Caracas against the colonizers.

From there, we could see further up through the bushes, the next point of the tour. And one of the most emblematic of the park, the square de El Parnaso.

So we continued the tour to this place using the pathways of the park instead of the stairs that also lead to the square.

El Parnaso

The square El Parnaso is also known as Plaza de Los Enamorados (Lover's Square). It was built as part of the Paseo Guzmán Blanco, inspired by the French gardens. The president at that time, Antonio Guzmán Blanco, loved French culture. And the vestiges of French influence in the city architecture are from his terms. He had three.

The gardens are beautiful, although I think they could be more cared for in terms of the plants that adorn them. The fountain in the center of the square was not working.

We were also able to learn from the tour that at this park was once the first botanical garden of the city, of which nothing remains.

In the center of this area, there is a bust of Pedro Elías Gutiérrez the composer of a very well-known song in Venezuelan popular culture, El Alma Llanera.

We continue our tour up the stairs at the end of El Parnaso.

The view from the stairs to the gardens is beautiful.

The space is idyllic, and it is easy to understand why it is known as well as the Plaza de Los Enamorados.

The Clock

Going up from El Parnaso, we reach an area where there is an old clock. In this area, there is also a small cafe, and in the background, it can be seen the Chapel of Lourdes, which I will talk about in the second part of the visit.

In the past, it was customary to have a large clock in the city squares. This one that is located in this area of the park was one of those old clocks, and it was from the time of Guzmán Blanco.

Around the clock were several art students sketching it.

Many of these clocks were adorned with jewels. This one, from what we were told, was for a long time with the hole where the clock machine goes empty until it was restored. And now, with a new clock, it tells the time in the park like in the old days.

We continue our tour and pass by the sculpture of another figure of Venezuelan history who fought in the war of independence, Jose Francisco Bermudez.

And from there, we continued through the park's pathways to a point considered a kind of viewpoint as you'll see an impressive view of the center of the city from there.

The View

Throughout the tour of the hill, there are exceptional views of the center and west of the city, some of which you can see at Caracas' Postcards from El Calvario. But certainly, this point is the one that can be considered as the viewpoint of the park.

Here we took many pictures of the group. And the hubby took this one of us to send to our son, who we missed a lot in this walk. And we are already planning to repeat it when he comes to visit.

The park has much more to show. At first, I had thought of doing a single post of the whole ride, but when I saw how long it was, I decided to split it up. So expect the continuation soon.

This is also my post for this week's #wednesdaywalk challenge, although a little early, hosted by @tattoodjay in collaboration with #makemesmile hosted by @elizacheng.

Thank you for reading!

_{All images and writing are my own unless otherwise stated.}

© CoquiCoin

January 24, 2023

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