Santo Domingo de Bonaval Park


  • Caption
    View of Section of Ruined Wall
Related people
Alvaro Siza (architect)
Isabel Aguirre Urcola (architect)
Date
1994
Location
Europe->Portugal->Galicia (autonomous community)->Coruña, A (province)->Santiago de Compostela
Description
The Santo Domingo de Bonaval Park was originally an old municipal cemetery on the estate of the Santo Domingo de Bonaval convent, located in the heart of Santiago de Compostela's historic quarter. In 1994, Isabel Aguirre and Alvaro Siza designed a park on the grounds of this cemetery. This was done partly in conjunction with Siza's new Galician Center for the Contemporary Arts, which was built adjacent to the convent and the park.
"Bonaval Park, with an area of about 35,000 square meters, occupies the old estate of the Santo Domingo de Bonaval convent, dating back to the early 13th century, and is divided into three clearly differentiated zones: the orchard, the oak grove, and the old cemetery, closed up in 1934. Intervening in such a unique context to turn it into a public park called for utmost respect for the preexisting. Though there was a previous project to start from, it was necessary to go about adapting it to new discoveries: remains of walls, ruins, burials, and especially stones and gushes of water oozing through the walls and the earth." -- (1995). Santo Domingo de Bonaval Park. A+V Monograph, 51-52, 114-117

Keywords: Spain, Santiago de Compostela, Santo Domingo de Bonaval, Saint Domingo of Bonaval, Parque de San Domingos de Bonaval, convent, complexes, outdoor spaces, grounds, park, planned landscapes. Submitted by Timothy Crowther, recipient of the 2005 Whitaker Travelling Fellowship.
Style/Period
1990s (1990 - 1999)