Calle Balcones and calle Felipe Massieu

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Squares, streets & markets

These two streets form part of the nucleus of the founder area of the city, and have a superb environmental value due to their aristocratic character, as well as their relatively good state of preservation. The buildings along calle Balcones were originally residential, although nowadays some of them are offices or cultural centres. The street is famous for its variety of balconies (hence the name balcones), comprising wooden ones, covered ones and ones with iron railings. Its name is thought to come from the Military Government building along it, for its huge wooden balcony. 

Calle Felipe Massieu (previously calle Gradas) is located right behind the Cathedral, between the Plaza del Pilar Nuevo and calle Espíritu Santo, and runs in a north-south direction. It has a series of two-storey buildings on it on the eastern side, with a high environmental value and spread over a long period (from the 17th and 19th centuries) and are in a variety of styles. The houses are set on small plots with no structural uniformity at all, although each one has its own courtyard. A highlight of these is the Casa Báez for its corner location with calle Balcones, and which can be seen from all angles, standing on three floors, with a symmetrical yet complex composition on its façade and its open wooden balcony. The classist composition of nº 3 has three balconies with cast iron railings and ballustrade top, while nº 5 (from the 18th century) and nº 9 (from the 17th century) display indented elevations within stone frames and open balconies. 

28.101076, -15.414073