The delegate of Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility, Borja Carabante, visited the facility this morning, accompanied by the councilor delegate of Cleaning and Green Zones, José Antonio Martínez Páramo, to check the result of the rehabilitation works that have been carried out during month and a half. As Carabante explained, this action is part of the strategy of “conserving, maintaining and recovering emblematic places within El Retiro, such as the recent restoration of the Montaña de los Gatos, which is being very well received by visitors.” from the park”. In this sense, the delegate has highlighted the City Council’s objective of promoting El Retiro “as a green lung, but also as a cultural, educational lung and protection of our heritage.”
The monkey pit is today a memory, an open-air museum that was a reference center for thousands of Madrid residents, especially children, who delighted in the exploits of the primates in that place, where they hoped to be rewarded with peanuts and the pieces of bread that the spectators threw at them from the limits of the artificial kiosk.
The Menagerie and all the areas that comprised it, including the monkey pit, closed in 1972 to be erected and permanently extended into the Casa de Campo zoo. Since then, the moat has been maintained in El Retiro as a decorative display to remember that it was part of that iconic zoo and to continue to be part of the collective memory.
Comprehensive performance throughout the whole
The City Council has made an investment of 148,575 euros. The works began on August 16 and ended on September 26. The restoration has been totally respectful of the historical materials of the building. Due to the deteriorated state of the plaster on the walls and floors, the oxidation and lack of protective paint on signs and decorative figures, it has been necessary to carry out a comprehensive intervention.
The floors have been restored using original materials and appropriate construction solutions have been offered to improve the stability of the parameters (wall plastering with lime plaster and fiberglass meshes) to prevent fissures and cracks from appearing. The finishing of the walls has been carried out with a special breathable paint for historical parameters, ensuring that the wall is breathable and does not retain moisture inside, which deteriorates plasters and paints.
On the floor, all cracks and fissures have been restored with repair mortars and a special high-resistance rubber chlorine paint has been applied to protect it from inclement weather and traffic.
The signs and decorative figures have been fixed, as they showed significant rust and dirt, as have the access doors to the pit and the interior ones. Work has also been done on the floors to eliminate rust and protect them with paint.
In order to be able to closely contemplate the result of these restoration works carried out at this point in El Retiro and go down to the monkey pit, the park management will enable the possibility of group visits by appointment.
