Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Santa Cruz' new Plaza de España
Photos of the new Plaza de España in Tenerife's capital, Santa Cruz, designed by Swiss architects, Herzog & de Meuron, have been appearing since the inauguration last week. Reactions seem to be mixed, mostly at the extremes of either love or hate, which is probably exactly what is to be expected.
Anyway, the geyser (a spurt like a volcanic heat source would do, not to be confused with this geezer) is working now and the lake is filled, though some people have said that there are enough lights strung up over it to make it seem like there is always a party going on. You mean there isn't? :)
Here's a video of the inauguration on July 24th, complete with suits (thankfully short excerpts of speeches), lights, geyser, fireworks y todo ...
There are various views here, one from the other side (with older Santa Cruz buildings behind the vegetation camouflaged kiosk building). Here's a view at dusk, which shows the lights reflecting on the lake and another, that shows them in darkness. Another angle across the lake to the gardens.
One interesting feature that I'd not seen mentioned before, although I knew that the discovery of the remains of the San Cristóbal castle had caused alterations to the original plans, are the black lines that appear in these images; here, here and here. Those lines trace the old castle walls.
The underground grotto beneath the plaza, where a section of the castle wall has been preserved, will not now be able to be visited until September.
Perfectly predictable: there are numerous photos showing people paddling, walking or playing in the water. The caption below this photo ponders on how clean the lake will stay during Carnaval. Colin Kirby says, he looks forward to "seeing how many people can end up in the lake at Carnaval time."
Quite a lot of them, I should imagine, until it's fenced off. :-)
