Originally, the gardens of the palace of San Telmo, patron saint of mariners, the Duchess of Bourbon gave them to Sevilla. They sat neglected until the city incorporated them into the grand setting for the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition--a showcase for the pavilions of the former Spanish and Portuguese colonies.
Fortunes rise and fall. The 1929 Ibero-American Exposition failed to generate the hoped-for economic boost for Spain and Portugal, opening as the stock market crashed. Revolutions and civil wars sent the park, once Sevilla´s only public park, into neglect again. It rises once more, a splendid setting for the museums that now occupy the former pavilions of the 1929 expostion.
A small gem emerges from the green, glimpses of azure and terracotta teasing through the shrubs. The tiled pool sits quietly among the eucalyptus, their leaves floating serenely on the water´s surface.
On a raised backdrop, a ceramic relief shows two caravels, their sails filled with wind. This small, outdoor room honors Los Hermanos Álvarez Quintero, Serafín and Joaquín, beloved writers of plays, dramas, and the quintessential zarzuela. Their works, extremely popular in the early twentieth century, a rebirth of Spanish theatre.
A small banner floats across the top of the relief, "Un mismo aliento impulsa las dos velas...."
A single breath pushes two ships....
In El Parque de María Luisa, I hear Spain, its breath soughing through the jacarandas, pushing this rebirth of its Andalusian heritage.
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