The Atalaya gardens contain a variety of tree and bushes specimens of particular interest.
The Atalaya is located on a plot where a palace surrounded by gardens was built about 1877, at one end of the district of Santiago, then on the outskirts of the city.
The housing, a harmonious palace with a large landscaped area round it, stands in the center of the complex. The design was commissioned to a French landscape gardener who arranged a series of isolated arbours with roundabouts decorated with fountains.
The front area of the house has open vegetation, with large spaces reserved for the lawn, while the back is lusher.
During the seventies, the garden was rearranged because of the installation in the palace of the Clocks Museum, and recently there has been a general restoration to renovate and update the museum facilities, now called “The Palace of Time” with more than 300 French, English and Central European clockworks dating from the XVII, XVIII and XIX centuries.
The gardens have an area of 18.000 m2 with specimens of centenary trees and were designed with different heights and provided with a pond, fountains, a copse, flower beds…, all according to the model of French landscape prevailing in the nineteenth century.
Among the most important wooded specimens, the hackberries, yuccas and palm trees placed at the entrance and sides stand out because of their size. In its rotunda and main garden a huge araucaria, an exceptional laurel can be seen, as well as Canary Island pines, jacaranda, ombú, Arizona cypress and cedars, a majestic ginkgo, blending privets and southern silky oak, among other specimens.
The Gardens of the Atalaya have been declared an Estate of Cultural Interest as historic gardens and listed as Andalusian Historical Heritage.