This historic site of the city was born in what was an old orchard and cemetery of the Temple of San Francisco, and was known in the eighteenth century as "Plaza San Francisco" or commonly as "Plaza de Abajo" (the latter name in relation to what is now Plaza de Armas).
In the first decade of the XIX century it was known as "Plaza del Recreo" (where wooden bullfighting circuses were previously held for important festivities between the XVII and XVIII centuries. Las Calles de Querétaro, 1910) sharing the property with the convent of San Benito, located in what used to be the cemetery of San Francisco.
This plaza, recognized by the rubble after the Reform War, was a place that beyond its desolation served as a market on Sundays, until its restoration, initiated in 1874 by the then governor Benito Zenea, after whom it is named today. However, the plaza was finished a decade later, with the fountain of the Goddess of Hebe, a gift from the Rubio house to the City Hall, and later, during the Porfiriato, the art noveau style kiosk was added, which remains today.
After the Revolution, following the assassination of General Alvaro Obregón in 1928, it was given the name Jardín Obregón, which lasted only a few decades before returning to its current name in 1990.
Today, this square sees hundreds of people, who sit on the benches under the shade of the leafy trees, to enjoy the scenery, a good danzón or some other cultural event, making the Zenea Garden, one of the most endearing places in the daily life of Queretaro.
