Book Review: Swedish author Anneli Bojstad teams up with her husband, the celebrated Spanish photographer Eduardo Mencos, to spotlight 40 alluring Spanish gardens, reaching across the countryside from north to south, onward to the Canary Islands, Mallorca and Menorca.

Great Gardens of Spain: Published by Frances Lincoln Ltd.

Spanish Gardens … Amazon.com

While you may be familiar with the idiosyncratic wonders of Gaudi’s Park Güell, or the magnificence of El Generalife and the Alhambra, I’m guessing even devout garden enthusiasts will find places they hope to visit if that next trip to Spain becomes possible. Boistad reveals Parque Sama in Cataluna, designed by the same architect – Fonstsere i Mestre, who designed Barcelona’s La Ciudedela. It’s believed that Gaudi may also have worked here, given the park’s oddly fantastical rockwork.

The exquisite formality of Segovia’s majestic Palacio Real de La Granja de San Ildelfonso is shown in a panoply of year-round seasonal vignettes: Likewise, Madrid’s Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial, together with many other of the city’s public spaces.  Look for a garden in Aragon where nature reigns in stunning cascades of rushing water and serene woodlands, the Monasterio de Piedra.

Garden travelers may wish to make full use of the ‘Information for Visitors’ listing. All the pertinent contact information appears here, whether your future plans take you to the Atlantic region, the Mediterranean or Andalusia.

Garden of the Hesperides - Photo © Alice Joyce

Hesperides Plantings - Photo © Alice Joyce

In the contained space of a Hortus Conclusus, the designers called upon symbolic elements to relate to the scented landscapes of early Catalonia. A collection of citrus species hearkens to the admirable horticulture of Valencia’s 15th century. Cypresses are planted as prominent structural forms. Water cascades through channels. Fountains freshen the air.

In the words of the designers, “The garden is a setting for dreams…where…the highest, most generous thoughts come to mind.” In naming the garden, they looked to the nymphs as “the symbol of fertility.” In the sophistication of this public park, the Garden of the Hesperides helps to define the spirit of Valencia in the new Millennium with a refreshingly modern landscape design: A layout animated by the historical significance of its Mediterranean plantings, water features, and sculptural focal point.

Enter the confines of this walled retreat, and you escape from the nonstop traffic of a nearby thoroughfare. Two concrete gates swivel into a locked or unlocked position; the material given textural treatments that set polished surfaces against raw sections.  Inlaid with linear strips of black and cream-colored marble, the gates have a presence that calls to mind vast canvases in an art galley.

Concrete detail: Photo © Alice Joyce

Underfoot, the walkway contains subtle leaf patterns suggestive of fossil remains.

The landscape’s bold geometry caters to botanically inclined visitors with a composition incorporating rows of fragrant lavender and germander shrubs, bisected by walls of emerald green foliage interspersed with palm trees.

Exuberant bougainvillea clad pergolas provide a shady respite, while an espalier of ‘Toscana’ lemons basks in the sun. Water gently flows within the angular outlines of a rill, the channel dipping beneath the ground, and ultimately finding its way into a rectangular pond.

On the expansive terraces, a lovely Salix babylonica weeps, in alliance with  ’Metamorfosis‘ …a sculpture by Miklos A. Palfy.

Great Gardens in Spain .. Amazon.com

Valencia’s Green Zone: the TURIA GARDENS on Alice’s Garden Travel Buzz

]]> http://www.alicesgardentravelbuzz.com/2010/10/19/garden-of-the-hesperides-valencia/feed/ 1 http://www.alicesgardentravelbuzz.com/2010/04/06/santiago-calatrava-city-of-arts-and-sciences/ http://www.alicesgardentravelbuzz.com/2010/04/06/santiago-calatrava-city-of-arts-and-sciences/#comments Tue, 06 Apr 2010 17:10:12 +0000 Alice Joyce http://www.alicesgardentravelbuzz.com/?p=919 Continue reading Santiago Calatrava: City of Arts & Sciences

Where the Turia river once flowed, the Turia Gardens now comprise a 170,000-square-meter expanse , with sports facilities, bike paths, exercise stations, & lush gardens superimposed upon the dry river bed. Its rambling beauty is revealed on a stroll eastward, along distinctive sections that wrap around the heart of old Valencia’s serpentine streets and plazas. An area visually rich with Baroque, Romanesque, Gothic and Mudejar architecture. Architect Santiago Calatrava’s City of Arts & Sciences will be the stunning finale to our discovery of ‘the Turia.’

We continue along now, taking up where my feature on the Turia Gardens – Green Zone ended at Santiago Calatrava’s Exposition Bridge. The Turia walkway goes on, after wrapping around the lovely old quarter of Valencia, past Bofill’s Modernist landscape design adjacent to the music palace.

Turia Landscape .. Valencia's City of Arts & Sciences designed by Santiago Calatrava (ALICE JOYCE photo)

Soon we come upon a densely planted landscape, fragrant with swathes of herbs and bosks of trees which will braid together as they reach maturity in the undulating grounds of a vast complex – the City of Arts & Sciences, designed by architect/engineer Santiago Calatrava.

Calatrava-designed footbridge (Alice Joyce photo)

A small footbridge bears the mark of a Calatrava design, Valenica’s native son.

At last the ‘City’s’ true entryway comes into view:  Calatrava designed L’Umbracle to conceal. Its form stands atop a parking garage. Calatrava also created sculptural forms sheated in mosaics to house the elevators and mask air conditioning units. (In the photo, the form appears in the distance.)

L'Umbracle - City of Arts & Sciences (Alice Joyce photo)

A word derived from Latin, l’umbracle is a sort of shade house. In this case, one that captures the imagination. An innovative, open-air public space, the 18-meter-high structure possesses an intrinsic clarity of light for the trove of plants that grow within. There are terraces for relaxation and receptions: Allees of palms, ornamental vines, and aromatic species such as shrubs native to the region commingle with bitter orange trees, rockrose, plumbago, and buddleja.

Great Gardens Spain .. Amazon.com

Palace of the Arts, Valencia (ALICE JOYCE photo)

The spectacle of the City of Arts and Sciences looms like a dream: Calatrava’s gleaming white, organic architectural forms in glass, steel and concrete emphatically proclaiming Valencia’s place in the new millennium. Situated amid a 7,000 square-meter green space and sculpture park, completed in 2007, the ‘City’ arises in a formerly depressed industrial area a few kilometers from the sea.

Above: The Palace of the Arts offers a head-turning concept, with pencil cypresses breaking the surface of the pale blue water encircling the building.

L’Hemisferic Planetarium  (Alice Joyce photo)

Calatrava’s stunning design of the City presents a modern-day mecca of art and technology: In the Umbracle and L’Hemisferic; the emblematic Palau de les Arts – Palace of the Arts; and the Museu de les Ciencies Principe Felipe – Prince Felipe Science Museum. A building designed by Felix Candela, L’Oceanografic, a marine park, completes the complex.

]]>

Jardin de Monforte Promenade (ALICE JOYCE photo)

The old center of Valencia offers charming diversions for garden lovers: In contrast to the contemporary aspects of the Turia gardens, demonstrating the precision of Bofill’s Modernism, or Calatrava’s innovative buildings for the ‘City of Arts & Sciences,’ which manifest the breadth of the engineer/architect’s expertise, visitors to Valencia bask in historic parks and flower-filled promenades.

On a more intimate scale than Valencia’s Viveros, Monforte Gardens presents an achingly romantic, mid-19th century design of clipped orange trees and manicured parterres. In this atmospheric setting, venerable, age-old trees provide shade from the intense sunshine, giving way to grottoes of moss and lichen encrusted rock. In a satisfying convergence of fountains and filigreed ironwork, stroll amid an allee of classical sculptures and feel refreshed, pausing at the central pond shaped like a water-lily.

Monforte Public Gardens, Valencia (ALICE JOYCE photo)

Monforte Gardens, Valencia (ALICE JOYCE photo)

Spanish Gardens … Amazon.com

Viveros Royal Garden, Valencia (ALICE JOYCE photo)

Via the Puente de Real bridge, one enters Viveros by stepping out from the designated old quarter, while crossing to the right bank of the old river bed. Valencia’s largest garden landscape, it’s the site of the former Royal Gardens; the palace long since destroyed. With rose-draped pergolas, aviary, and Paleontology Museum on the grounds, Viveros is a perfect spot to take a cafe break and engage in people-watching.

Historic Gardens .. Amazon.com

A bit further along, the 19th century Paseo de la Alameda is a leafy, Moorish-inspired walk running adjacent to the old river bed. Delight in the ancient stone stairways, and asymmetrical layout of flower-filled beds and borders.

Turia Wall - Oleander in Bloom Photo © Alice Joyce

Valencia, Spain: The Turia Gardens project traces to 1957, when flood waters devastated the city’s historic district. To avoid another such deluge, the government diverted the Turia River, relocating the watercourse. Rather than turn the old river bed into a highway, as some suggested, the vast area became a public green zone, with renowned architect Ricardo Bofill assuming a primary role in the overall planning. Bofill envisioned a green sward meandering around and through the city of Valencia on a path toward the sea.

Turia Gardens: Richardo Bofill Design / Photo © Alice Joyce

Valencia’s bridges and old walls add atmosphere and character to each stretch of the Turia gardens. Walls embrace the path as Flower Bridge comes into view, a popular pedestrian walkway replanted annually with masses of colorful seasonal blooms.

Bofill’s Modernist aesthetic characterizes the Turia area linking the 16th century Bridge of the Sea - where a spacious circular pool evokes the river – to the Bridge of the Guardian Angel.

Bofill laid out this parcel in a symmetrical, rectilinear arrangement, softening all the straight lines with a lush green oasis incorporating groves of orange trees. A progression of fountains, set into the ground and enlivened by red tinted walls, produces a refreshing play of water as you move on. The fountains serve as a gateway, announcing the Palace of Music, where concrete colonnades articulate the palace’s formal courtyards. Olive trees, emerald lawns, and elaborately patterned carpet bedding emerge, along with a vast reflecting pool that springs to life with water jets synchronized to music coming from the concert hall.

Bofill Design Turia Gardens Colonnade Photo © Alice Joyce

The mirror image of Bofill’s design is restated in the path beyond, its soothing geometry leading to a 21st century marvel – the City of Arts and Sciences – soon to follow on  Alice’s Garden Travel Buzz.

Spanish Gardens …  Amazon.com

Valencia - Bridge of the Sea

The scope of the Turia is increasing, with the addition of the 35-hectare Cabecera Park at the western boundary. This parkland features a reconfigured terrain, giving rise to naturalistic hills and a lake, winding paths and a series of overlooks.

Turia Gardens (Turismo Valencia photo)

Bridge of the Sea, Valencia Photo © Alice Joyce

The contrast between old and new is particularly striking as one strolls the varied enclaves of the Turia Gardens, perhaps most apparent in the distinctive bridges.

Exposition Bridge - designed by Valencia’s own, now world-famous architect Santiago Calatrava is an iconic symbol of the city in the 21st century. The sight of the bridge signals the amazing architecture of the City of Arts & Sciences, emerging as the Turia lures you forward.

Exposition Bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava   Photo: Turismo Valencia

]]> http://www.alicesgardentravelbuzz.com/2010/03/30/turia-gardens-valencia-spain/feed/ 3 http://www.alicesgardentravelbuzz.com/2010/03/29/botanic-garden-valenciaspain/ http://www.alicesgardentravelbuzz.com/2010/03/29/botanic-garden-valenciaspain/#comments Mon, 29 Mar 2010 21:10:53 +0000 Alice Joyce http://www.alicesgardentravelbuzz.com/?p=796 Continue reading Botanic Garden .. Valencia, Spain

Botanic Gardens, Valencia, Spain (ALICE JOYCE photo)

Valencia, Spain .. a city  of tantalizing contrasts! Stroll the vibrant town center amid ancient Roman ruins, and you may find yourself surprised by elements of 21st century garden artistry.  There’s a newfound panache to this city which extends to its port, an elegantly rejuvenated area where the America’s Cup competition has been held. The seafront commands attention with an array of chic restaurants, glittery hotels, and broad promenades giving rise to atmospheric displays of palm trees and lavish flower beds.

Botanic Garden Shade House, Valencia, Spain (ALICE JOYCE photo)

In the days ahead I’ll share my impressions of  this coastal destination - Spain’s third largest city, where I was drawn, in large part because of Santiago Calatrava. Architect and native son, Calatrava has created buildings and bridges that garner praise and spark controversy worldwide. And he has been instrumental in putting Valencia on-the-map with his recently completed buildings that make up the City of Arts and Sciences. Stay tuned for in-depth coverage of this must-see complex, and Valencia’s TURIA GARDENS. Just as architect Frank Gehry brought Bilbao, Spain to life when his design for the Guggenheim Museum began attracting pilgrims among the cognoscenti of art and architecture, Calatrava has put his mark on Valencia!

Botanical Gardens … Amazon.com

A bit off the beaten path, outside the ancient city center on Calle de Quart is the Jardí Botànic - the University of Valencia’s Botanic Garden. The garden’s motto - Science – Culture – Nature - sums up the setting and the visitor experience. Dating back to 1567 for the study of medicinal plants, the current garden and research buildings emerge on the site of a 17th century orchard. Established in this location in 1802, the garden offers an architectural standout in the iron and brickwork umbracle (shade house). Plant collections, too, are exceptional: palms, Mediterranean and regional species; succulents and tropical specimens are highlights displayed in an open-air layout and greenhouses.  I highly recommend taking a virtual tour!

Succulent Bloom, University of Valencia Botanic Garden (ALICE JOYCE PHOTO)

]]>