The Hotel Santa Catalina

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Civil architecture · Year: 1947 · Authors: Miguel Martín-Fernández de la Torre

WIth access from the Pueblo Canario and calle León y Castillo, and through Doramas Park, the Hotel Santa Catalina is a star feature in the middle section of the city's layout. It was designed by Miguel Martín Fernández de la Torre in 1947, occupying the same place and following in the footsteps of the primitive colonial hotel of the same name, built by the "The Grand Canary Company" in 1890 under the auspices of English architect MacLaren. It has a symmetrical layout with some added buildings to the north. Its fundamental structure is in a double "Y" shape, in which the two towers stick to the façade as a adjoinment to the side wings, which are offshoots to the central rectangular structure. The building is a veritable inventory of all elements of popular and learned architecture on the island, occupying the parametres and running along the façade in a somewhat ungamely fashion. Moldings, spigots, mantlepieces, rounded columns, wooden balconies, rectangular and semicircular windows, oculus, etc, correspond to sumptuous application of so-called "neocanarian" style. The same kind of environment was attempted in the hotel's interior, with marble, stucco, and frescos, as well as lamps and other specifically designed furniture for the building, displaying a "total work of art".

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