El Pinar de San José park It is today an urban park in the neighborhood of Carabanchel, 14 hectares very close to Avenida de la Peseta. In the past it was part of an extensive peri-urban area of ​​plots and farming areas that connected Leganes and Alcorcón with Madrid. Large infrastructure works, especially the M-40, have cut this continuity and the Pinar de San José is a wooded island that resists the attacks of the development of the city that until a few years ago seemed unstoppable.

Located in the area known as The Piqueñas, the San José Institute Foundation It has its origin in 1895, when Benito Menni, provincial of the Order of the Brothers of San Juan de Dios, and the Marquis of Vallejo participated in the laying of the first stone of the building. In 1899 the work was finished. A small architectural gem, a red brick complex made up of several buildings and with beautiful gardens. Its objective was to welcome and care for epilepsy patients, now it welcomes the largest Madrid palliative care unit. Since its inception the foundation has been run by the Brothers of San Juan de Dios. The San José pine forest that surrounds the foundation was planted in 1906 by the Brothers of San Juan de Dios, the stone pines form a forest in which we can always see people doing sports, it also houses municipal sports facilities.

Despite industrial estates and roads, El Pinar has a connection with the Park of the Crosses and the Arroyo de Butarque Linear Park, already in Leganés, and above all here we find a walkway that allows us to cross on foot or by bike the M-40 and allows us to connect Madrid to Leganés and Alcorcón avoiding the asphalt. Without a doubt a good solution for a sustainable mobility in the south of Madrid. It's a shame that it is not cared for as it deserves and that connection has a neglected appearance, like an open field on the edge of the city.

A abrazo.