García Sanabria Park

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Leisure · Subcategory: Green spaces · Year: 1929

The municipal García Sanabria park is the best green area complex in the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and was conceived, from the beginning, as a place for leisure and enjoyment for the citizens. Its importance for the capital is immense from several points of view. Firstly, for its extraordinary botanical variety, gathering inside more than 300 different species originating from all parts of the planet, some as diverse as South Africa, China, Mexico, North and South America, Equatorial Africa, Japan, Madagascar, India or Pacific Islands, not forgetting the extensive representative sample of Canarian endemisms. Secondly, for its internal design which makes it very interesting, featuring walks and paths of extraordinary beauty (Bamboo Walk, Casuarina Walk or Pergolas Walk, to name a few), also housing a magnificent and original flower clock. And as if that were not enough, the park contains an extraordinarily varied range of artworks inside, ranging from sculptures of a more classical configuration to examples of world-renowned avant-garde art works that have naturally fitted into this space since the 1st International Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition , held in the city at the end of 1973.

The idea of creating a municipal park was an initiative of the Tenerife journalist and writer Patricio Estévanez, who since 1881 had been writing in his newspaper about the beneficial effects a park could offer the city. This idea was joined by the doctor Diego Guigou y Costa, always concerned about childhood, which led him at the beginning of the 20th century to request a space for children's games. These initiatives were joined by some local societies such as the Gabinete Instructivo and the Ateneo Tinerfeño.

In 1911 the municipal architect Antonio Pintor made an ambitious project for an urban park in the place where it is now located, but with the arrival of the First World War and the consequent economic crisis that struck the islands, the project was shelved. It was necessary to wait until the 1920s when, under the mayoralty of Santiago García Sanabria, the first steps were taken to make the old project a reality.

On 12 December 1923 the deed of purchase of the extensive land was signed, and from there, the work of levelling, laying out the walks and planting trees began, following the plan prepared by the Casa Leyva y Compañía of Granada, specialised in gardening and floriculture, which carried out the work free of charge in exchange for being commissioned the species of flora and arboriculture that needed to be imported. The cost of the works was contributed to by the people of Santa Cruz with the creation of a Pro-park board, responsible, through subscriptions and contributions, for raising funds to complete the works which were practically finished, for the most part, in 1929. In 1937, two years after the death of Mayor García Sanabria, the City Council agreed to name the municipal park after him, for which he had fought so much.

After years of tweaks with the incorporation of new plant species, new fountains and sculptures of various types and after intensive use by generations of Santa Cruz residents, in 1998 the City Council decided to carry out an improvement of the entire site. Under the guidelines of the architectural firm Palerm & Tabares de Nava, it underwent an almost comprehensive reform. Reopened in June 2006, the "Park" regained its social prominence and remained what it always was: a magnificent civic space where nature and art combine with calm, enjoyment and coexistence.

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