Benalmádena's new Ibn al-Baytar 'green lung' park starts to take shape

The Ibn al-Baytar urban forest park, Benalmádena's new "green lung", is starting to take shape. Planned in six phases, the town hall has resumed work on the first phase after modifying the project in order to use reclaimed water to irrigate the green spaces. It has also put out to tender the second phase of this space, which, once completed, will cover an area of 22.05 hectares.

The first phase involves an investment of 2.44 million euros and affects 1.6 hectares, while the second phase, which covers 1.01 hectares, has been put out to tender for 2.49 million euros. In total, therefore, 4.93 million euros for an area of 2.61 hectares in the middle of the urban fabric of Benalmádena, which mainly affects the Costa area, in what are the only two phases planned for the current term 2023-2027. The execution period in both cases, the modified first phase and the second part of the project, is six months.

The ultimate goal is to create a new park, with a significant botanical and natural habitat diversity, favouring connectivity between urban and green areas, which will be complemented by facilities for sports and leisure activities.

In the first phase, one of at least eight viewpoints will be erected in this large park, which have been conceived as a cultural route dedicated to making known the figure of Ibn al-Baytar, the greatest botanist and pharmacologist of Islamic civilisation. Born in 1197, it was in Benalmádena where he spent his childhood and adolescence and began to take an interest in the plants around him and how to use them to cure certain ailments, a task to which he devoted himself until his death in Damascus (present-day Syria) in 1248.

At that viewpoint there will be a square with toilet facilities; a picnic area and a sports zone that will include a pump track, with a special circuit for adults and another for children; and a skatepark bowl, one for adults and another designed for youngsters. In this first phase, the urban orchards will also be laid out in an orderly way, thus responding to the need to regulate these spaces which, over the years, have sprung up alongside the course of the Arroyo del Pantano stream.

In the second phase there will be a multi-sports court 45 metres long and 28 metres wide: there will also be a kiosk-bar, along with a children's play area with a theme related to the history behind the park. Also in this phase there is a space planned for a calisthenics area, designed for different age groups, as well as another of the viewpoints that will make up the route and which will be equipped with information panels.

Both phases require urban development, including the creation of a network of footpaths, water supply, drainage, electricity, tree planting and landscaping.