A public park that glows in the dark thanks to 'lapis specularis'It has petanque courts, playgrounds, green areas and for relaxationThe district of Los Higuerales, in Arboleas, has a new and modern sports and recreational facility located at the gates of one of the greatest geological and archaeological attractions of the region: the lapis specularis mines, the first mineral used in the history for the manufacture of translucent windows in ancient Rome and that made this area of Almanzora the epicenter for extraction of this mineral in the ancient world.
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The new 'Parque de Cristal', as the Town Council has called it, covers an area of about 30,000 square meters and defines the entrance to the mines. This space, which the 400 inhabitants of the district can already enjoy, has petanque courts, covered benches with pergolas, green areas and children's and bio-healthy parks.
The merit of the park has been to integrate leisure and the historical-archaeological heritage of the environment, which is manifested in the remains of ancient Roman constructions, with remains of ancient structures such as columns. But this historical symbiosis goes beyond the simple conservation of monuments and structures, giving the park what is perhaps one of its most striking characteristics.
A feature that can only be discovered by visiting this space at night. And it is that, as corresponds to its condition of "prelude" of the archaeological site of the Romana del Espejuelo Mine, the Town Council has decided to give prominence to this beautiful mineral, which has a very particular and surprising property: at night it reflects the light of the moon, lighting up with a phosphorescent glow.
A coup d'état prepared by the Town Council to make this space unique and leave no one indifferent. And it is that, in the grounds of the park, what looks like white gravel is actually the precious mineral with which the Romans built the first windows in history, or rather their remains crushed and converted into "picadura".
The idea is far from new: such is the refractory power of this mineral, which was already used in Roman cities such as Pompeii and Rome, where it was poured crushed on the tracks of the racetracks to be able to carry out night races thanks to the characteristic shine produced by lapis specularum.
"They used these crystals on the tracks of the chariots to illuminate the moon, we have used them on the grounds of the park as if it were sand or gravel for gardens. It was already crushed because it is what the miners were discarding during the extraction of the mineral", explains the mayor of the municipality, Cristóbal García.
Within the short-term plans of the Town Council, there is also the conditioning of the lapis specularis mines, which may begin to receive visitors "at the end of this year or the beginning of the next," according to the predictions of the mayor, who complains about the lack of funding for a project of great cultural and archaeological value, a project that, in any case, the Council is determined to undertake alone if necessary.
