Gulliver gets a facelift: Valencia's 'giant' Lilliput park set for full revamp

VALENCIA'S world-famous 'Gulliver Park' is undergoing a massive overhaul, meaning it will be shut until late next year – but the city council promises it will be worth the wait.

And it's completely necessary, explain local authorities, given that the park's overwhelming popularity since it was unveiled in December 1990 means the structures have become worn out.

After all, the first children who ever climbed on it would be aged approximately in their mid-30s or even pushing 40 now.

This fairytale creation is based in the huge botanical gardens that were created in the bed of the river Túria, which once curved around half of the city centre but was diverted away from the urban hub after the 'Great Flood of 1957', when it burst its banks and filled houses up to 1.5 to two metres (at least five or six feet) deep in water.

The highly-novel idea of turning the now-dry river into a botanical garden and one of Europe's largest inner-city 'green lungs' was not only championed across the region, but residents elsewhere started calling for their own dry riverbeds to be turned into parkland.

Much of the Túria Gardens are simply grassland with footpaths and cycle lanes, although part of it is home to the BioParc, an open-air safari centre with such a high standard of living for wild animals that the globally-acclaimed chimp expert Dr Jane Goodall has heaped praise upon it.

Starting at the Serrano 'twin towers' in the city centre, which used to be one of the gateways into Valencia through its boundary walls, and ending at the Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias ('City of Arts and Sciences', or CAC), a beautiful and futuristic complex you can read more about here, the Túria Garden is also home to an outpost of Lilliput. 

The late-17th century protagonist of Jonathan Swift's early-18th century novel travelled to a long list of weird and wonderful lands, including one where he was thumb-sized and the natives were giants, another where he was able to conjure up the ghosts of any figure from history he wanted and quiz them, and the final one inhabited by horse-like creatures considerably more civilised than the human race.

But arguably, the most famous of these lands was Lilliput, where Gulliver awoke, lying on his back, being shot at by ant-sized people.

Their bows and arrows did very little damage to him, and Gulliver eventually became a much-loved part of the community before finally managing to find a ship heading for home.

In Valencia's Gulliver Park, the children playing are the Lilliput inhabitants, and Gulliver himself is the giant – and doubles up as slides and climbing frames.

He is stretched out in a circular area of about an acre, outside which is grassland and trees – about two-and-a-half acres in total.

In fact, Gulliver is so huge that the slides hurtling down his limbs can easily take the weight of a large bunch of children, or even adults, all at once.

The park has only shut twice in its 31-year history – briefly for repairs in 2012, and in 2020 during the worst of the Covid crisis. 

As a result of the long closure last year, the surfaces have become rough and worn, with the fibre-glass structure starting to rise up through the thick coats of paint, leading to children complaining of scrapes and grazes.

The park was immediately shut down again for major renovations.

Flooding in parts, 'inappropriate constructions' invading the site, and the sand-like surface for a soft landing in case of falls wearing thin needed to be addressed – and this would also be the ideal time to rethink the whole design: Improving access, upgrading toilets, rebuilding the boundary fencing, landscaping the garden and adding in signposts, park benches and lighting.

Gulliver himself will not be replaced, but will be thoroughly repainted and repaired, and the rope-net climbing frame attached to him renewed.

An enclosed area will be set up with apparatus suitable for children aged three and under.

Additional trees and bushes will be planted, and the irrigation system repaired.

A picnic area will be created, and this is likely to be open to the public several months before the rest of the complex is ready.

The job has just been put out to tender with a budget of around €1 million, including drawing up plans.

Once the contract has been awarded and work starts, it should be finished within about six months.