A sculptural space

The urban reforms that were made in Barcelona for the Olympics include five major parks created in the city. Parc de les Cascades, which passes over a stretch of the Ronda del Litoral ring road, is one. It includes a pond from which cascades a small waterfall. The park contains an enormous abstract sculpture, the work of the Dutch artist Auke de Vries, entitled El poder de la paraula, the power of the word; it was presented by the Dutch government to the city in honour of the Olympic Games. It is not the only artwork in the park: on the other side rises the gigantic sculpture by Antoni Llena, David and Goliath, which seems to hang in the air.

A Mediterranean park

Parc de les Cascades contains a good selection of Mediterranean flora, with Aleppo and stone pines, rosewoods [from Bolivia], plane trees, European nettle trees and cypresses, as well as the beautiful jacarandas [from the Americas], which fill with splendid blue flowers in the summer. There are also olives, the Mediterranean tree par excellence and the unmistakable Barcelona palms.