When Madrid had its very own Champs Elysées (sort of).By 1915 a little hellenic temple still
When Madrid had its very own Champs Elysées (sort of).By 1915 a little hellenic temple still stood in a particular garden in the middle of Madrid’s fashionable neighborhood of Salamanca. This little building, now longtime vanished, was the last standing vestige of Los Campos Elíseos (the Elysian Fields) one of the pleasure gardens in the city, following the trend of other similar gardens in Paris, London or Barcelona. Indeed, in Madrid there were already similar places like the Paraiso gardens or the very popular Eliseo. The recreative garden was inaugurated in June 18, 1864. It could albergate 30,000 people and had a variety of entertainments including a bullring, a concert hall, a roller coaster, a boating river and an opera house, the Teatro Rossini. For the inauguration the opera house performed the ballet Giselle, followed by Rossini’s William Tell a few days later. The gardens had also a restaurant, a bath house and a ball room.In spite of all their early successes, the gardens were shortlived. They were meant to, since the City Hall’s licence only was supposed to last fifteen years. Second, when the Park of El Retiro became totally open to public, it became more fashionable. And, besides, there was the problem of Madrid’s constant growth The new neighbourhoods started to devour the park as early as 1870. By 1880 los Campos Elíseos were in total decadence. The last functioning building of the pleasure garden, the bullring, was closed in 1881.The little monument above mentioned was fortunate enough to end enclosed in the particular garden of an aristocratic house, surviving for a while. Source for the images -- source link
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