Parque Batlle

Parque Batlle - Villa Dolores
Barrio and park
Monumento La Carreta
Street map of Parque Batlle - Villa Dolores
Map of Montevideo highlighting the barrio
Coordinates: 34°53′42″S 56°9′16″W / 34.89500°S 56.15444°W / -34.89500; -56.15444Coordinates: 34°53′42″S 56°9′16″W / 34.89500°S 56.15444°W / -34.89500; -56.15444
Country	Uruguay
Department	Montevideo Department
City	Montevideo
Website	www.parquebatlle.tk

Parque Batlle (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈparke ˈβatʎe]), formerly Parque de los Aliados (Allied Park), is a barrio (neighbourhood or district) and a major public central park in Montevideo, Uruguay. It is named in honour of José Batlle y Ordóñez, President of Uruguay from 1911–1915.

The barrio is located south of Italia Avenue and north of Rivera Avenue and includes the districts Belgrano, Italiano, Villa Dolores and the park area. It borders the barrios Tres Cruces to the west and north, La Blanqueada and Unión to the north, Buceo to the east and Pocitos to the south.

The park covers an area of 60 hectares (150 acres) and is considered the "lung" of Montevideo owing to the large variety of trees planted here. It is home to the Estadio Centenario national football stadium, as well as the national monument "La Carreta".

In 1907, Pablo Nereo Gabriel Antonio Pereira (1838–1906) donated eleven acres of his land, which was then named after him as "Campo Pereira," for a building a park, to the Economic Management Board, and the idea of a park was created by an Act of March 1907 which also projected wide boulevards and avenues. The project's landscape French architect, Carlos Thays, began the plantings in 1911 and completed it with all the attendant embellishments required for a park. In 1918, the park was named "Allied Park," following the allied Army winning the World War I thus honouring the heroes of the Allied Forces. The park was further expanded to the present status, which covers an area of 60 hectares (150 acres). This extension was made possible owing to an estate that Antonio Pereira in his "Will" had bequeathed partly to the municipality in May 1930. The Board then further acquired more land and created the Great Park Pereira seen in its present status. May 5, 1930, it was again renamed as Parque Batlle y Ordóñez, in memory of the prominent Politician and President of Uruguay, who had died in 1929. In the same year, the Estadio Centenario was opened. Between 1935 and 1938, the athletics track and the municipal velodrome were completed. It was designated a National Historic Monument Park in 1975.