Monsanto Forest Park

"Monsanto Park" redirects here. For the former motor racing circuit, see Monsanto Park Circuit.

Monsanto Forest Park is a protected forest in Lisbon, Portugal, the largest green patch in the city, with almost 1000 ha (10 km2)^{[citation needed]}. It offers a well diversified tree-covered area to the Portuguese capital.

A large number of species were introduced in Serra de Monsanto (Monsanto Hills) during the reforesting period. Owing to climate and geological characteristics these originated very interesting ecosystems implanted in the urban patch of Lisbon (and surrounding municipalities). The Ecological Park of Lisbon, located at Monsanto Forest Park, is a meeting point for a new contact with the environment, right in the heart of the Portuguese capital. Its main purpose is to make visitors sensitive to the many variables of the environment, for instance, geology, climate, flora, and fauna.

The Ecological Park, residing inside the Forest Park, has a perimeter of four kilometres, a total area of fifty hectares, being almost sixteen a fenced area and thirty four hectares non-fenced. It spreads over Serra de Monsanto, from Alto da Serafina to the Woods of S. Domingos de Benfica, passes the farm of Marquis de Fronteira and the Lead Shooting Club of Portugal. The Ecological Park runs an Interpretation Centre, with an Auditorium, a Space for permanent and occasional Exhibitions, and a Centre of Multimedia Resources. Quercus, the largest Portuguese non-profit national environment organization for the conservation of the natural environment, is based in Monsanto Park.

History

The intensive agricultural usage of the soils led to the erosion and practically to the destruction of the original vegetation. In the 1930s, the increasing demand for construction areas led Duarte Pacheco, a Portuguese Secretary of State for the Public Works, to recover an idea from 1868: the reforesting of the then practically bare Serra de Monsanto. The regulation for Monsanto Park occurs in 1934 and the works for replantation were carried out by farmers and prisoners from Monsanto Fort. It was the architect Keil do Amaral who presented the first global project for the park, including leisure and sports areas, some of them still existing. The Ecological Park has a privileged location at Monsanto Forest Park — the largest green patch in the city of Lisbon, with almost 1000 ha. The Monsanto Park Circuit, a 5.44 km (3.38 mi) race track, hosted the 1959 Formula One Portuguese Grand Prix.

Gallery

• 

  Overview of the park

• 

  Signal of the riders trail of the original draft of Monsanto

• 

  Three Crosses Mill

• 

  Former structure for the collection of stones

See also

• Lisbon
• Monsanto Park Circuit

Coordinates: 38°43′11″N 9°12′11″W / 38.71972°N 9.20306°W / 38.71972; -9.20306