San Giuliano park is located in Mestre, near the bridge to Venice on a 700 hectares area overlooking the lagoon of Venice...
San Giuliano Park, the largest park in Europe, is not only an area of environmental and landscape recovery but also one of the places for studying the lagoon environment. It aims to be a destination for sports and cultural leisure activities, offering recreational and refreshment areas equipped with facilities, as well as a network of pedestrian and cycling paths integrated into the green system.
Created with the help of a European contribution, San Giuliano Park represents an ambitious project as it is one of Italy's most significant urban reconversion and environmental remediation interventions in terms of complexity, articulation, and its dimensional and territorial characteristics. The project is part of an initiative for the conservation and protection of the lagoon habitat and the existing wildlife and plant heritage on the lagoon edge, aiming to limit the degradation that has occurred over recent decades.
The proposal to restore marine ecology and reclaim the environment marked the beginning of a conservation policy for the lagoon habitat. The park's unique location on the shores of the lagoon, halfway between Venice and Mestre, gives it an important symbolic role, serving as both a gateway to the lagoon city and a central point for social and cultural activities.
Thanks to the creation of the park, the area of Punta San Giuliano, which had been used for years as a dumping ground for industrial and urban waste, has shed its negative role as a barrier between Mestre and the historic city. It has returned to being a natural meeting point between the mainland and the Venice lagoon, on which the park overlooks.
The idea of creating a park in the San Giuliano area began in 1990 when the Municipality of Venice announced an international design competition "A Park for San Giuliano" and, in 1991, awarded the project to architect Antonio Di Mambro, head of the winning team, Comunitas Inc. The project for the creation of San Giuliano Park, approved by the city council on January 19, 1996, covers an area of 700 hectares, including 475 hectares of land and 225 hectares of canals, mudflats, and lagoon.
Although the reclamation and development work on San Giuliano Park is not yet complete, it was inaugurated in 2003 with three days of celebrations from November 7 to 9, during which part of the park was opened to the public with entertainment activities and initiatives to introduce the park, including a train offering a circular route.
For more information visit the park web site: www.parchidimestre.it
E-mail: info@parchidimestre.it
