| University Park | |
| Type: | Public park |
| Location: | Historic Centre of Lima |
| Created: | 1923 |
| Open: | 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.[1] |
University Park is a public park located in the historic centre of the city of Lima, Peru. It is rectangular in shape and is located at the intersection of Abancay and Nicolás de Piérola avenues.
It receives its name because of the historic headquarters of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, also known as the "Casona" and which until the last decades of the 19th century was the home of the viceregal Real Convictorio de San Carlos, is located there, currently a cultural center.[2] The university settled in said premises in the mid-1870s, leaving its viceregal headquarters permanently occupied by the Chamber of Deputies (current Congress of the Republic). It would not be until 1966 that San Marcos abandoned said premises due to the damage inflicted on the building by the earthquake of that year to its Ciudad Universitaria campus, which is why the park was the scene of memorable demonstrations and student riots during much of the twentieth century.
The construction of the park was carried out at the beginning of the 1920s.[2] During the 1980s and 1990s, after many years of deterioration, the University Park was renovated, building a couple of ornamental pools as well as a perimeter fence.
The park features several monuments, as well as the Torre Alemana, a monumental clock gifted to the city by the German colony on the occasion of the Centennial of the Independence of Peru, in 1921;[3] likewise, next to the Casona de San Marcos is the Panteón de los Próceres.
The park is the location of the following monuments: