The Alameda is already mentioned in writings from 1530 as a place for walking and recreation, then called El Prado. In the years 1643-1645 Rodrigo Ponce de León, viceroy of Valencia, ordered the planting of two rows of poplars, due to which it was called Alameda.
The Fountain of the Four Seasons, in the image, dates from 1861. Previously it had been in the Orchard of Canon Pontons, in Patraix.
At the end of the 17th century, the Alameda was already a landscaped promenade, but the subsequent War of Succession left it quite destroyed.
The Torres de los Guardas (in the image one of them), were built in 1714 and were intended to house the tenants of the nearby orchards, who had an obligation to leave the Alameda ground in good condition. These towers were dedicated to San Jaime and San Felipe, and are located at the beginning of the promenade, near the Jardines del Real.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Alameda was frequented by the city's nobles and bourgeois, who toured it by horse-drawn carriage.
In the 18th and 19th centuries it was 1 km long and 100 m. Wide. The projects of the second half of the 19th century lengthened the promenades and increased the vegetation, installing fountains and sculptures.
In 1932, Javier Goerlich carried out a reform project. The Alameda was extended to the Aragón bridge and the Mar bridge was pedestrianised.
The Alameda is connected to the city center by five bridges: the Real bridge, the Exposition bridge, the Flores bridge, the Mar bridge and the Aragón bridge.
La Alameda was the old access, from the sea, to the Royal Palace of Valenci
This fountain of the Four Elements was cast in Paris and was located in the Plaza del Mercado since 1852, in 1878 it was moved to the Alameda, but in front of the Puente del Mar. In 1933 it was moved to the current site.
The extension of the Alameda, carried out at the end of the 20th century, has not managed to continue with the idea of a landscaped promenade of the old Alameda.
The Palau de la Música, which appears in the photo, is the work of José María García de Paredes and is located in this extension of the Alameda.
The Palace of the Exhibition was built, provisionally, for the Regional Exhibition of 1909. It was preserved later, serving for various activities: from 1966 to 1979 it was the Higher Technical School of Architecture. It was restored in 2003.
Neo-Gothic in style, it has obvious references to the Lonja, the Torres de Serranos and the Miguelete.
The project for this building and the Monforte gardens was carried out by the architect Sebastián Moleón, also the author of the Valencia Bullring. Both the palace and the gardens date from 1859.
These gardens are reminiscent of the Arab-Valencian ones, with myrtle hedges, tall orange trees and the presence of water as fundamental elements.
The complex was declared a National Artistic Garden in 1941.
In 1941 the Monforte Gardens are restored by Javier de Winthuyssen.