L'Umbracle

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L'Umbracle by Santiago Calatrava, 2001
Avinguda del Professor López Piñero
Valencia, September 2022

“L'Umbracle (part of the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències (City of Arts and Sciences) complex in Valencia, Spain, is a sculpture garden and landscaped walk with plant species indigenous to Valencia (such as rockrose, lentisca, romero, honeysuckle, bougainvillea and palm trees). It harbors in its interior The Walk of the Sculptures, an outdoor art gallery with sculptures from contemporary artists (Miquel from Navarre, Francesc Abbot, Yoko Ono and others). The Umbracle is a space that is a home to numerous sculptures surrounded by nature. It was designed by Santiago Calatrava as an entrance along the south-western edge to the City of Arts and Sciences and as a cover over its car park. L'Umbracle was completed in 2001. It is 320 m long and 60 m wide, located on the southern side of the complex. It has 55 fixed arches and 54 floating arches that stand 18 m high. The arches are parabolic. The plants in the garden were carefully picked to change colour with the seasons. The garden consists of 99 palm trees, 78 small palm trees, and 62 bitter orange trees. There are 42 varieties of shrubs from the Region of Valencia including cistuses, mastics, buddleia, pampas grass, and plumbagos. Honeysuckle and hanging bougainvillea are two of the 450 climbing plants in the Umbracle. It also has 5,500 ground cover plants such as lotus, Spanish Flags, and fig-marigolds. There are over a hundred aromatic plants including rosemary and lavender.” (L'Umbracle, Wikipedia)