Park of the Exposition

The Parque de la Exposición or Park of the Exposition is a park located in the Santa Beatriz neighborhood of downtown Lima, capital of Peru.HistoryThe park was occupied by the south gate of the Walls of Lima, known as Puerta de Guadalupe. In the 1870s President José Balta ordered the demolition of these walls within its modernization plan of the city. It was planned that this location would be aimed at building a park that would house the Lima International Exhibition of 1872. Thus, alongside the park, rose the Exhibition Palace (now the Museum of Art of Lima).The park plan was made by Manuel Atanasio Fuentes and Italian architect Antonio Leonardi. Its design was neo-Renaissance and included the construction of pavilions including a zoo and other buildings. Leonardi also designed the Exhibition Palace. In the beginning the largest, covering the current and contemporary Park of the Reserve and the land where now stands the Estadio Nacional, were part of the park.During the War of the Pacific, the park had a military use, before the invasion, as a garrison and a hospital and after the invasion as headquarters for the Chilean troops.