Parque Doramas

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Leisure · Subcategory: Green spaces · Authors: Nicolás María Rubió Tudurí

The Doramas Park came about with the development of the Hotel Santa Catalina and its surrounding buildings, but didn't earn its tag as a municipal park, even though it spread out well beyond the gardens that bordered the hotel, until about 1922-1923 when the Town Hall in the capital took over the land and its facilities, together with some plots alongside belonging to the family of Diego Wood, which, until the expropriation by Mendizábal, had previously belonged to the Convent of San Pedro Mártir. In the area where the Pueblo Canario now occupies, it was drawn up years later by painter Néstor Martín Fernández de la Torre, with views over the famed "Pueblo Español de Barcelona", as a site where visiting tourists could find a permanent display of craftwork, folklore and islanders' traditional customs. Work didn't actually start until after 1940, when the then mayor Diego Vega Sarmiento personally took the project on. It required two phases of work over 16 years, opening finally in 1956. His architect brother Miguel was also involved in the reconstruction of the Hotel Santa Catalina in 1950, along the lines of its present day structure, after which the gardens underwent significant refurbishment, taking them as far as hillside of Altavista, with designs undertaken by prestigious architect and garden landscaper Nicolás María Rubió Tudurí, from Menorca. He was able to give the area a more modern, straightforward, attractive and unique quality to the park which has lasted to the present day, without giving up on the regional appearance that dominated the whole area. He gave it a character and personality that contributed to redefining the city's very physical and socio-cultural geography. 

The back of Hotel Santa Catalina [...] then became, and still is, a large expanse that was recognised and enjoyed by locals as "Doramas Park", so called in memory of the aboriginal fighter who died at the battle of Arucas, when up against Pedro de Vera's troops. It was named after the thick forest he lived in and which extended over lands covering present day municipalities of Firgas and Moya; an ancient lush forest that is survived today by dragon and palm trees, ficus trees, varied dense plant life making this park one of the most outstanding natural jewels within the "miniature continent" which is Gran Canaria.

It has recently been refurbished, allowing it to recuperate all its traditional character and splendour, along with modern facilities, including a fascinating new terrace bar, and its own natural garden wildlife such as cotorra parrots and other birds, together with a colourful array of fish that swim around a large new pond, alongside its traditional fountains. All this has turned the Doramas Park back into a favourite spot for children and grown ups alike, many of whom still remember the small zoo that previously existed there back in the 1960s, with its star resident called "monkey Felipe", a playful but sometimes moody and busybody chimpanzee, who would bask in the limelight in front of the crowds in his little cage.

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