La Alameda de Hércules de Sevilla: De jardín a espacio público como soporte de la sociedad y del patrimonio contemporáneo

The heritage protection has developed from a careful look at the unique architectural piece, to an urban area of the city. The concept of heritage has changed throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. However, with the exception of the typology of a Cultural Interest Property classified as a Historical Garden under current heritage laws, the urban public space has so far received little recognition and even less protection from both the cultural and urban administration. This did not occupy the relevant position it acquires in the current city linked in its growth to the postulates of the Modern Movement. The current research deals with the case of the “Alameda de Hercules” in Seville. Public space of great relevance, whose germ originates in 1574 when the assistant Francisco Zapata de Cisneros, Count of Barajas, draining a branch of the Guadalquivir River, would generate one of the most singular typologies of public space and which has most influenced the design of other Spanish and American cities: the avenues. The proposal will reflect on their protection and the consequences of this, as well as on the adaptation and evolution of a historical space destined both for a type of local inhabitant and to another much more globalised one.