06 October, 2007

Plaza Mayor: From Dawn to Dusk


The occupancy of public spaces of Europe is one of my favorite subjects so far in our travels. It is so interesting how no matter where you go in Europe, there is always a series of plazas that includes a central plaza, and most of the time they are always packed with people. I feel that this is one of the things that makes a place a "city" in its truest sense. I feel like the idea of an American city is slowly fading away, and the lack of public space is a major reason. A lot of cities in America don't even have a single place for pedestrians unless you count the parking lot of a McDonalds or something. Of course it is an unfair comparison but it unquestionably makes Europe a more adventurous place in a way.

The Plaza Mayor is dynamic because of its history and the way it changes with the time of day. I decided to take photo montages of the interior so that it looks like I broke open the square and showed all the people there at once. I took three, one in the morning, one in the mid afternoon and one at night. The one in the morning is when it is empty and filled mostly with tourists. The other two show the plaza at much more active times, mostly because more locals are out and about. The plaza's permanent conditions include its place in the history of Spain, and the events that took place there, which both make it a tourist attraction and a place of pride for the Spanish kingdom. The number of people and types of people are also affected by the time of year, time of day, weather and events of the city. The time we were there was towards the end of tourist season, during a period of fine weather, and around the time of the noche en blanco. I would make an educated guess that because of these conditions the amount of people shuffling through and hanging around the plaza mayor was relatively high.

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