Parc de la Tête d'Or (literally, Park of the Golden Head), in central Lyon, is an urban park in France, with 117 hectares (290 acres) it is 8.5 times smaller than bois de Vincennes in Paris. Located in the 6th arrondissement, it features a large lake on which boating takes place during the summer months. Due to the relatively small number of other parks in Lyon, it receives a huge number of visitors over summer, and is a frequent destination for joggers and cyclists. At the northern end of the park, there is a small zoo, with giraffes, elephants, tigers and other animals. There is also sporting equipment, such as a velodrome, boules court, mini-golf, horse riding, and even a miniature train.
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In 1530, the lands constituted the current park were the Lambert family's property, and the location was already named "Parc de la Tête d'Or". In 1662, an archival document referred to the area called Grange Lambert. The name "Tête d'Or" was found from a legend saying that a treasure with a Christ's head could be buried in the park. The area was a flood zone composed of "lônes" (dead backwaters) of the Rhône and "brotteaux" (swamps). It remained like this until the park creation.[1]
Since 1812, an urban park in Lyon was planned. Various locations were being scheduled, like the Presqu'île or the hill of Fourvière, and then finally, the current lands owned in large part to the Hospices civils de Lyon were chosen.[2] In 1845, the architect Christophe Bonnet proposed, in the purpose of the beautification of the Guillotière quarter, a project of urban park at the current location of the park : "To satisfy the pressing needs of a large population, I turned the lands and brush of the Parc de la Tête-d'Or in a planted wood like the Bois de Boulogne." This idea was also presented by the Senator-Mayor Claude-Marius Vaïsse who wanted to create a park to "give the nature to those who don't have it". In 1856, the land was bought to the Hospices Civils de Lyon. The work of the park began in 1856, under the leadership of Swiss landscapings Eugene and Denis Bulher and lasted five years. The park was finally open in 1857, although at the time all the work was not yet completed. It was located in the northern district of Les Brotteaux, along the Rhône. A dam was built to make non-flooded vast lands transformed into a park.
The park has large grassy areas and rolling terrain. It is bordered by a dike that separates the Rhone and on which the fair and exhibitions were held. After the moving of the Exhibition Centre to the suburbs, in Chassieu, the site became a housing complex with offices, apartments and buildings devoted to entertainment, including the International City of Lyon and the 3000-seat Amphitheatre of the Palais des Congrès of Lyon.
A vast lake of 16 hectares can indulge in the pleasures of boating in summer, thanks to the pier located on the south bank. In the northern part of the lake rise two wooded islands, the Île des Tamaris, accessible only by boat, and the Île du Souvenir on which is erected a memorial in the shape of a quadrilateral. Formerly called Île des Cygnes, it has been converted after plans by the Lyon architect Tony Garnier and the 1904 Prix de Rome sculptor Jean-Baptiste Larrivé to honor soldiers killed in combat. The soldiers' names are engraved on the outer sides of walls. An underground corridor provides access to the island, the staircase that leads literally immersed under the lake.
The park also contains four rose gardens, but also huge greenhouses, a botanical garden, a zoo and a velodrome.
The main entrance, at the southeast corner, is guarded by an enormous wrought iron gate known as the Porte des enfants du Rhône (Gate of the children of the Rhone). The gate, with its gilded features, was installed in 1901, when the park was fenced off for the first time.
The zoo was created at the same time as the park. At first, it was scheduled to create only of a farm for educational purposes, with some local wild animals, but little by little, developments have been increased to accommodate new animals and the park progressively has been turning into a real zoo.
The zoo now houses animals from around the world. It extends over six hectares and counts several hundred animals, including many large mammals, some are very rare, like the Barbary lion, extinct in the wild since 1922.
In October 2006, the park opened "La Plaine Africaine" ("The African plain"), an area where 130 different animals - some belonging to rare and protected species - live in freedom on 2.5 acres (10,000 m2). The African plain is divided into five parts. The savannah part, where Ankole-Watusis, the Nile Lechwes, guineafowls and Black Crowned Cranes can be seen, is the largest. It communicates with the part reserved for giraffes. A wet land houses many breeds of birds, including pelicans and flamingos, and lemurs on an island. An adjacent enclosure is reserved for crocodiles, which are allowed to go out only escape during hot weather. At the east end of the plain, a pavilion houses the boses for antelopes, and some sandy enclosures adorned with rocks and stumps, where live Yellow Mongooses, porcupines, Sand Cats, and Bat-eared Foxes and turtles. Other areas in reconstruction in 2010 spring, host servals, leopards and lions.
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