Pradolongo Park, Madrid: lake, history and how to get there

In the south of Madrid there is a park of more than 60 hectares, with a three-hectare lake where people play a sport almost nobody has heard of, a church with a weathercock on its dome that survived the Spanish Civil War, and a stage that every summer becomes the biggest open-air party in the south of the city. And yet, unless you live in Usera, you have probably never been. It is called Pradolongo Park.

I got there on foot, which is how you really discover places like this: no car, no rush, stopping wherever I felt like it. What follows is everything I learned that day and what I researched afterwards: where its name comes from, its history of shacks and rubble tips, what happens on the lake, when the festivals are and how to get there easily.

Pradolongo Park at a glance

Why is it called Pradolongo?

There are two explanations, and they are probably the same one seen from two angles.

The documented version comes from historian María Isabel Ortigas, in her history of the Usera and Villaverde districts (2002): the name comes from the "prado de Luengo", a common pasture shared between the towns of Villaverde and Madrid. Before there was a neighbourhood or a park, this was shared grazing land on the border between two municipalities. A report on the park by Madrid City Council's migration and intercultural coexistence observatory quotes the same source.

The popular version, the one you'll hear locally, is simpler: "luengo" means "long" in old Spanish. A "prado luengo" is a long meadow, which describes the valley sloping down towards the Manzanares river where the park sits today.

In short: both versions point to the same place. A long, shared meadow on the southern edge of Madrid. The neighbourhood took its name from the land, and the park took its name from the neighbourhood.

History: from rubble tip to park

This is the part that surprised me most, because it completely changes how you see the place.

Before the park: a wetland, a rubble tip and seven hundred shacks

In the early 20th century this was open countryside with a few scattered houses. In the 1920s and 30s, migrants from Castilla-La Mancha and Extremadura, around seven hundred people, built shacks on land owned by the Orcasitas family. They used handmade adobe and reinforced the walls with bricks collected from a rubble tip that had formed over a wetland. That detail, recorded on Wikipedia from residents' accounts, explains the ground under your feet: a good part of the park literally sits on top of an old dump over marshy land.

The children of those families learned to read in the only building in the area fit for the purpose: the Maris Stella church, which I talk about below.

1978–1983: the park designed by its neighbours

This is what makes Pradolongo unique. The timeline, according to Madrid City Council:

1. 1978. Experts from the residents' associations of Almendrales, Meseta de Orcasitas, Usera and Zofío draft a preliminary plan with a "list of needs". The City Council didn't commission it: the neighbourhoods wrote it themselves.
2. 1979. A plan for the south of Madrid (Plan de Actuación Sur) makes the project possible and land is expropriated. The Botanical Garden is created the same year, so it is older than the park itself.
3. 1981. The city's parks department draws up the landscaping and facilities project.
4. 1983. The first 11-hectare phase opens with mayor Enrique Tierno Galván. The press calls it "Madrid's first democratic park", because its design was based on what the residents who would use it had asked for.
5. 1980s and 1990s. New phases are added until the park reaches its current size.
6. 10 January 2007. An extension opens across Doctor Tolosa Latour street, on land that had been a rubble tip, with ramps, terraces and winding paths.

What did the residents ask for? A place to walk, for children to play, to listen to music, to read in peace. Even "a river with waterfalls". When you cross the bandstand esplanade today and see people walking, kids on the swings and a concert being set up, you are looking at a wish list from almost fifty years ago, fulfilled point by point.

A note on size: 60 or 72 hectares?

You'll see both figures. Wikipedia gives 72.5 hectares; the City Council's official page says "almost 60 hectares". The difference usually depends on whether the extension across Doctor Tolosa Latour street and the adjoining green areas are counted. Either way, it is one of the large parks of southern Madrid, though not one of the biggest in the city: Casa de Campo, Retiro Park and Juan Carlos I Park are all well ahead.

Pradolongo lake: what happens on it

The lake covers about three hectares and is the centre of the park. Look closely and you'll see two raised goals floating on the water. They are not decoration.

Kayak polo: Usera's secret sport

Pradolongo lake is home to kayak polo, a mix of canoeing, handball and water polo that, according to the Spanish federation, only about 600 people play in the whole country.

The club keeping it alive here is Club Deportivo Oxio, which has been on this lake for 17 years after starting out in Casa de Campo. The City Council lets them use the lake, and around 80% of their activity is kayak polo, though they also offer canoeing, slalom and stand-up paddleboarding (SUP), including subsidised programmes for young people.

The lake's problem. The club's schools coordinator, Sergio Martín, has explained it in the press: the water is as shallow as 20 centimetres in places and never deeper than 70, while official competition requires 90 centimetres. That rules out tournaments, damages equipment and leaves players less confident when they train in deeper water. The club is asking for the lake to be deepened, at least in one area.

Radio-controlled model boats

The other classic use of the lake, especially at weekends: radio-control enthusiasts launching their model speedboats and sailing boats. It is a charming, very local scene, with grandparents and grandchildren watching the same thing.

Birdwatching

The City Council lists birdwatching among the park's uses. The usual sightings are mallards and black-headed gulls, but the Maris Stella environmental centre runs bird walks where you learn to identify many more. A pair of binoculars makes a big difference: from the south bank you can see far more than you'd expect.

The Broken Church: Maris Stella, the weathercock and the Civil War

It is the most unusual building in the park, and it has three names, which already says a lot:

• Maris Stella ("Star of the Sea"), the official one.
• La Iglesia Rota (the Broken Church), because it was wrecked by bombing in the Civil War.
• La Iglesia del Gallo (the Church of the Cockerel), after the weathercock on top of its dome.

It was built between 1920 and 1930 in brick, with an octagonal slate dome, an unusual design, topped by a lantern with the weathercock and a metal cross. Curiously, it hardly worked as a church until the 1960s: it may have started as a chapel for the owners of the Orcasitas estate, because very few people lived here in the early 20th century.

Locals remember it not as a church but as a school, where teacher José Puñal taught the shanty town's children to read. It was deconsecrated in 1985 and then stood abandoned for more than three decades.

From ruin to environmental centre

• 2009: it is added to the list of protected buildings, less for its architecture than for its value as historical and environmental memory.
• 2017: after a public consultation, the city's housing company and the Usera district draft the restoration project.
• 2021: the Maris Stella Environmental and Cultural Education Centre (CEAC) opens.
• 2022: the project is entered for the AVS architecture awards.

Maris Stella centre: opening hours and activities

Address: Calle Doctor Tolosa Latour, 16 (28026 Madrid). All activities are free and must be booked in advance. Most are in Spanish.

The programme is surprisingly varied: guided walks through the park, bird identification workshops, an urban vegetable garden, orienteering, chamber concerts, short film screenings and guided visits to the church itself. Check the calendar before you go, as it changes every month.

Alejandro Malaspina Botanical Garden

North of the lake, and older than the park itself: it dates from 1979. It is dedicated to the Enlightenment-era scientist and explorer Alejandro Malaspina and covers 4,200 square metres, laid out as 30 geometric flowerbeds across seven small squares, with 180 species of trees and shrubs and information panels explaining each plant family.

• Conifers: pines, thujas, cedars, firs.
• Broadleaf trees: maples, willows, limes, hazels, mimosas.
• Oaks: holm oaks, cork oaks, oaks.
• Others: olive trees, palms, Siberian elm, box elder, poplars.
• Shrubs: native strawberry tree, roses, firethorns, oleanders, dogwoods, abelias.
• Aromatic plants: thyme, rosemary, sage, cotton lavender, lavender.

The park also has a signposted nature trail about local plants and wildlife, ideal if you're with children.

Sport in Pradolongo: cycle loop, orienteering and more

The sculptures: "Tres" and the 26 "emerging" pieces

"Tres", the bronze sculpture

It stands between the central square and the main pond and was installed during the park's third phase. According to the City Council's public art records, it consists of three vertical bronze pieces of the same shape but different heights, placed on the axes of an imaginary triangle. They are polished at the top and rough at the bottom, and halfway up each one has a cone pointing towards the centre.

In plain terms: it looks completely different depending on where you stand. Walk all the way round it.

The "emerging sculptures"

In the 2007 extension across Doctor Tolosa Latour street there are 26 metal sculptures, irregular polygons and cylinders standing upright, leaning or bent, in red, yellow, green, blue, white, purple, orange and grey. They are scattered seemingly at random and work as visual landmarks in an area that, remember, used to be a rubble tip.

Chinese New Year in Usera: the parade moves to the park

Usera is home to a large part of Madrid's Chinese community, and its Chinese New Year celebration is the biggest in Spain. For years the main parade ran along Marcelo Usera and Rafaela Ybarra streets, but in 2026 it moved to Pradolongo Park, at the request of the community associations themselves.

The parade route inside the park

The 2026 parade (Sunday 22 February, from 12:00, with more than a thousand participants) followed this route:

1. Start on the path by the Halcón Pradolongo community garden, next to the Maris Stella centre.
2. Past the Round Fountain (Fuente Circular).
3. Behind the bandstand.
4. The "Tres" sculpture.
5. Finish at the lake jetty, with a show of music, theatre and martial arts.

The highlight was the Yingge warrior dance, more than 300 years old and recognised as Intangible Cultural Heritage in China.

The fireworks

On the Saturday before the parade, at 20:00, the sky over the park fills with a fireworks display, now in its eleventh consecutive year, visible from many points in the park and reflected in the lake. In one edition the fireworks even drew a red dragon over the water.

The numbers give a sense of scale: in 2026 there was talk of 110,000 people across the whole celebration in Pradolongo. In 2024, 25,000 people came to the fireworks night alone, and 40,000 to the parade.

Planning for 2027? Chinese New Year falls on 6 February 2027. The exact dates of the Usera parade and fireworks are announced by the City Council a few weeks before, so check the official programme before you go.

The Usera summer festivals: foam, free concerts and fireworks over the lake

The Fiestas de Usera are held in June, in two stages.

First weekend: each neighbourhood in the district celebrates on its own, with local residents' associations. This is when the foam parties happen, in almost every neighbourhood.

Second weekend: the park is transformed. A fairground is set up on Avenida Rafaela Ybarra, with a main stage, rides and food stalls. The classic sequence:

• Opening speech and lemonade, with the traditional free lemonade.
• Foam party with bouncy castles and water slides, at midday.
• Popular paella around 14:00.
• Afternoon music with flamenco and pop.
• Free concerts at night.
• Fireworks over the lake to close.

A nice detail: in 2026 the opening speech was given by the kayak club that trains on the park's own lake. Hard to sum up the spirit of Pradolongo better.

With children: the play castle

The star play area is a castle with battlements: several huts with towers joined by bridges, slides and climbing walls, on sand, with a colourful fence all round and benches for parents. There are more play areas across the park with swings, balance structures, climbing nets and roundabout swings.

Park facilities: water fountains, picnic areas and toilets

This is the first thing to know, especially if you're with children or older people:

There are no public toilets in Pradolongo. Not by the lake, not in the play areas, not on the esplanade. Sixty-odd hectares without a single toilet open to visitors. With small children, plan around that, and count on the bars around the park as your only option.

There are drinking fountains around the park, though quite far apart. A practical tip: they are marked on Google Maps. Before you set off, search for "fuente" on the map of the park and you'll see the ones nearest to where you plan to enter. In summer, bring a bottle anyway: there are long stretches without shade between them.

Picnic areas: the park has picnic zones with tables, which are the real alternative to having no café inside. If you're spending the whole morning, bring your food and get a table early, because they go fast at weekends.

To eat or drink you have to leave the park, but you're in Usera: the area has some of the best Chinese food in Madrid and plenty of Latin American restaurants.

How to get to Pradolongo Park

The good news is that getting there is easy and cheap: it is inside public transport fare zone A.

By metro

• Hospital 12 de Octubre (line 3): the most convenient for the east side, next to the Maris Stella centre.
• Almendrales (line 3): good for the north entrance.
• Usera (line 6): about a 6-minute walk from the edge of the park.
• Plaza Elíptica (lines 6 and 11): a bit further, but useful as an interchange.

From the city centre, line 3 runs direct from Sol to Almendrales and Hospital 12 de Octubre, with no changes.

By commuter train

• Cercanías line C5, stations Doce de Octubre and Orcasitas.

By EMT bus

• Lines 6, 60, 78, 81, 121 and 131, with stops nearby.
• Night bus N15.

By bike

The Anillo Verde Ciclista runs through the park, so you can ride from much of the city without touching traffic. From the centre, head down to the Manzanares and follow the flat Madrid Río route, which is car-free, and then turn off towards Usera.

Map of Pradolongo Park

Suggested walk (about 4 km, an hour and a half)

This is the loop I did, in an order that avoids retracing your steps. It is about 4 kilometres over a mix of paving, dirt paths and steps, so cushioned trainers are better than flat shoes:

1. Enter from the east, next to the Maris Stella centre. If it's open, go in: the short exhibition on the park's history changes how you see the rest of the walk.
2. Along the lake shore until you're facing the Broken Church. It's the best spot for a photo of the dome and the weathercock.
3. Jetty and stepped seating, where the kayak polo goals usually are.
4. Alejandro Malaspina Botanical Garden, north of the lake. Take your time: the panels are worth reading.
5. "Tres" sculpture, between the square and the pond. Walk all the way round.
6. Bandstand and esplanade. This gives you a real sense of the size of the June fairground.
7. Round Fountain and the tree-lined promenade that starts there.
8. Hill with steps, among stone pines. The climb with the best views of the lake.
9. The play castle and back along the cycle loop.

It's about 4 kilometres, a little shorter than the Madrid Río walk, with one advantage: it's a loop, so you finish where you started without needing the metro to get back.

Practical tips before you go

• Little shade on the esplanades. The park sits on a gentle, dry slope and deliberately has little lawn, for sustainability. In July and August, go early or late, stick to the pine woods and bring a cap, sunglasses and water.
• Accessibility: the City Council classifies it as "partially accessible" for people with reduced mobility, with most paths accessible. The ramps down to the lake are well designed; the steps up the hill have no easy alternative.
• Best time: it is very quiet on weekdays and fills up at weekends. If you want to see the model boats and the local atmosphere, go on a Saturday or Sunday.
• Book Maris Stella activities in advance: they are free but fill up.
• Combine it with a museum: the Madrid Railway Museum is in the neighbouring Delicias area, two or three stops away on metro line 3.
• After your walk: you're in Usera, with Madrid's best Chinese food and a good range of Latin American restaurants, especially Bolivian, Colombian and Peruvian.

Frequently asked questions about Pradolongo Park

Why is it called Pradolongo Park?

It takes its name from the neighbourhood, which comes from the "prado de Luengo", a common pasture shared between Villaverde and Madrid, according to historian María Isabel Ortigas. The popular reading links it to "prado luengo", meaning long meadow, since "luengo" means "long" in old Spanish.

What happens on Pradolongo lake?

Kayak polo, a sport that mixes canoeing, handball and water polo, with two raised goals on the water. It is run by Club Deportivo Oxio, which also offers canoeing, slalom and stand-up paddleboarding. People also sail radio-controlled model boats and go birdwatching. Swimming is not allowed.

When is Chinese New Year in Pradolongo?

The Usera celebration takes place around Chinese New Year, usually in February. In 2026 the parade was on Sunday 22 February inside the park, with fireworks over the lake the evening before. Dates are announced by Madrid City Council a few weeks in advance.

When are the Usera festivals in Pradolongo?

In June. The first weekend is spread across the district's neighbourhoods, with foam parties, and the second is centred on the fairground in Pradolongo Park, with free concerts and fireworks over the lake.

How do I get to Pradolongo Park by public transport?

By metro, to Hospital 12 de Octubre or Almendrales (line 3) or Usera (line 6). By Cercanías commuter train, line C5, to Doce de Octubre or Orcasitas. By EMT bus, lines 6, 60, 78, 81, 121 and 131, plus night bus N15.

What is the Broken Church in Pradolongo?

It is the Maris Stella church, built between 1920 and 1930 and popularly known as the "Broken Church" because of the damage it suffered in the Civil War, and as the "Church of the Cockerel" because of the weathercock on its dome. Since 2021 it has housed the Maris Stella Environmental and Cultural Education Centre.

Are there public toilets in Pradolongo Park?

No. The park has no public toilets in any area, not by the lake or in the play areas. Keep this in mind before you go, especially with small children.

Are there drinking fountains in Pradolongo?

Yes, there are drinking fountains around the park, though quite far apart. They are marked on Google Maps, so you can find the nearest ones before your visit. In summer, bring a bottle anyway.

Can you eat in Pradolongo Park?

Yes. There are picnic areas with tables, which fill up early at weekends. There are no permanent cafés or kiosks inside the park, but the surrounding Usera area has plenty of places to eat.

A park the neighbourhood earned

Pradolongo doesn't have the fame of Retiro Park or the wild scale of Casa de Campo. What it has is a history you can touch: a shared meadow that gave its name to a neighbourhood, a wetland turned into a rubble tip, adobe shacks, residents who sat down in 1978 to write the park they wanted, and a mayor who in 1983 opened eleven hectares that today are more than sixty.

It is exactly the kind of place that never appears in the guidebooks, and that you only discover by putting one foot in front of the other.

Sources

• Madrid City Council: official page for Parque de Pradolongo (green heritage).
• Madrid City Council: Centro de Educación Ambiental y Cultural Maris Stella and its programme of activities.
• Madrid City Council, Cultural Heritage and Urban Landscape: records for the "Tres" bronze sculpture and the Esculturas emergentes Pradolongo.
• Wikipedia: Parque de Pradolongo.
• esMADRID (Madrid tourism): Parque de Pradolongo (Usera).
• Madrid's Observatory of Migration and Intercultural Coexistence: report on Pradolongo Park, citing Ortigas, M. I. (2002), Usera y Villaverde. Historia de los distritos de Madrid, Ediciones La Librería.
• Europa Press, Telemadrid and Madrid Actual: reports on kayak polo on Pradolongo lake and Club Deportivo Oxio.
• Diario de Madrid: press releases on the 2025 and 2026 Usera festivals and Chinese New Year.
• Madrid Destino and eldiario.es (Somos Madrid): Chinese New Year 2026 programme and parade route.
• Premios de Arquitectura: Maris Stella, Centro de Interpretación Ambiental del Parque de Pradolongo, AVS Awards 2022.

Information checked in September 2026. Opening hours, festival programmes and activities can change: confirm them on the City Council's websites before your visit.