The landscape was re-levelled and held by a marginal slope covered with stone punctuated by benches decorated with tiles from the Fábrica Aleluia of Aveiro. The name of the park was deliberated in a Council Session, in order to pay homage to Dr. Manuel Braga, great promoter in the valorisation and creation of green spaces in the city, namely the Mata de Vale de Canas and the Gardens of Avenida Sá da Bandeira [Sá da Bandeira Avenue].

It was where the Noites do Parque – Queima das Fitas [Nights at the Park – Burning of the Ribbons] took place until 1999, when they were transferred to the Praça da Canção [Song Square] where it is still held today.

Monument To Antero De Quental

The bust of Antero de Quental (1842-1891) was promoted by the Diário dos Açores newspaper and inaugurated in 1929 at the Jardim da Estrela (Lisbon). In 1941, by offer of the Municipality of Lisbon, it was re-inaugurated at the place where it currently stands. Born in the Azores Archipelago, Antero de Quental was a scholar in Coimbra where he participated actively in several associative literary movements in which the Questão Coimbrã [Coimbra Question] stands out. It was the central figure of what would become, in literature, the Realistic period.

Monument to Florbela Espanca

The initiative to carry out the work in honour of Florbela Espanca (1894-1930) was commissioned by the Central Archaeology and Art Group to the sculptor Armando Martinez. It was inaugurated on 8 December 1994, a date that coincided with the celebrations of the first centenary of the birth of the poetess. Born in Vila Viçosa, she was never associated with any literary trend. Yet her poetry, given its rather strong sentimentalist content, reminds us a little of other Portuguese romantic authors.

Monument to António Arnaut

Homage of the Municipality of Coimbra to António Arnaut (1936-2018) for his role in the foundation of the National Health Service (SNS). A sculptural work, in bronze, signed by Pedro Figueiredo. Beside the bust was also placed a plaque with one of the phrases of the honouree, also poet and writer: “All fruit is the will of the seed”.

Monument to Manuel Alegre

Statue commemorating the 40 years of Manuel Alegre’s literary life, inaugurated in September 2005. In the work, in bronze, Manuel Alegre appears wrapped in a student cape, symbolizing the “nonconformist spirit of the academy of Coimbra”, ruled by freedom, justice, equality and poetry. A poet who, by taking a position against the dictatorial regime of the Estado Novo [an authoritarian regime that had been in force between 1933 and 1974] and against the colonial war, guides his work by the ideals of Freedom and Brotherhood.

Museu da Água [Water Museum]

Occupies the old pumping and water treatment station that supplied the public network. Known as Casinha do Parque [Little House of the Park] which still bears the date of its construction: CMC [Municipality of Coimbra] 1922. Inaugurated in March 2007, the current structure was conceived by the architects João Mendes Ribeiro, Alberto Lapa and Paolo Monzo, to portray the history of public water supply. Also of notice is the use of the underground supply tunnel that currently leads to a terrace along the river bank.

Monumento à Barca Serrana [Monument to the Serrana Barge]

The Serrana Barges were made for the transport of goods between Penacova and Figueira da Foz. The name Serrana [mountain] is due to the fact that it came from mountains loaded with firewood, gorse and foliage to be sold for the furnaces and stoves in the city.

Coreto [Bandstand]

Designed by the architect Silva Pinto, was inaugurated on 7 July 1904. It was transferred on 29 August 1934 to its current location. It consists of a dome with eight flat sections with a curvy plat band, made of cast iron, decorated with a harp in the middle of each face, containing in the crowning a weather vane made of wrought iron.

Monument to Dr Manuel Braga

On 21 April 1955, it was deliberated, in a chamber session, to honour Dr Manuel Braga giving his name to the, until then, called City Park. The tribute was justified as he was a great promoter to the valorisation and creation of green spaces in the city, namely the Mata de Vale de Canas, the Gardens of Avenida Sá da Bandeira [Sá da Bandeira Avenue] and, in the decade of 1920, the transformation of the old Ínsua dos Bentos into a public garden.