Plaza de Espana Seville BW

The Plaza de Espana in Seville Spain has a bit of a Disneyland feel about it, maybe because it was purpose-built in 1928 for the Ibero-American... more

by Joan Carroll

Title

Plaza de Espana Seville BW

Artist

Joan Carroll

Medium

Photograph - Digital Art

Description

The Plaza de Espana in Seville Spain has a bit of a Disneyland feel about it, maybe because it was purpose-built in 1928 for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929. Even so, it's a great place for photography; you can almost fool yourself that it had a more organic origin! It is said to be a landmark example of the Renaissance Revival style in Spanish architecture. In 1929, Seville hosted the Ibero-American Exposition World's Fair. The entire southern end of the city was redeveloped into an expanse of gardens and grand boulevards. The centre of it is Parque de Maria Luisa, a 'Moorish paradisical style' with many tiled fountains, pavilions, ponds, benches, and lush plantings of palms, orange trees, Mediterranean pines, and stylized flower beds. The Plaza de Espana, designed by Anibal Gonzalez, was a principal building built on the Maria Luisa Park's edge to showcase Spain's industry and technology exhibits. Gonzalez combined a mix of 1920s Art Deco and 'mock Mudejar', and Neo-Mudejar styles. The complex is a semi-circular brick building with a tower at either end. In front of the building, following the curve of its facade, is a 500-metre canal crossed by four bridges representing the four ancient kingdoms of Spain. You can rent small boats to row in the canal - the Plaza is known as "the Venice of Seville". By the walls of the Plaza are many tiled alcoves, each representing a different province of Spain.


FEATURED PHOTO, Top100 SHOW Case FEATURE ART - 3 a day group, 2/10/15

FEATURED PHOTO, The Artistic Photographer group, 1/24/15

FEATURED PHOTO, Black and White Photography group, 1/23/15

Uploaded

January 23rd, 2015