
The most famous places of a city are for some reason, witnesses of history that have gone through various functions and aspects. Even the secret jewels of a city are acknowledged for their historical trajectory. This is the case of the zoo that once housed the Maria Luisa Park and that only a few citizens will witness.
It is difficult to imagine that a zoo could have existed inside the city’s most famous park. The enclosure in question, in fact, had monkeys, lions, peacocks and other species.
Where was the Maria Luisa Park Zoo located?
At the end of the 50’s, a commission of managers thought it was not a bad idea to install a zoo in the middle of Maria Luisa Park, so they got down to work and imported animal species and installed cages in the area we know today as Isleta de los Patos.

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The Alfonso XII Pavilion became an enclosure where lions, pink flamingos and even an Australian dingo could be seen. However, the deterioration of the facilities and the excessive humidity to which the animals were subjected, caused this zoo to close its doors at the end of the 1960s and the animals were relocated to other nearby zoos such as the one in Jerez.
Later, there was another attempt to recover the zoo and some 800 birds were brought in, including pheasants and peacocks, and monkeys. Even so, the project failed again and for reasons of poor animal protection Seville again failed in its zoo project.
Decades later, hardly any trace of this zoo remains, although we can still see its legacy every time we see a swan roaming around the Alfonso XII Pavilion.
The tiger that lived in the center of Seville
The building that today houses La Casa del Tigre (the name already tells us something of its history) was once the home of José María Lassaleta, director of the zoo in Jerez de la Frontera.
He brought a tiger to number 9 Amparo Street, a pet that aroused the curiosity of the neighbors in the seventies.