Also Called: The Forest City
Walking around the streets in Mendoza you can easily forget that you are in a city, surrounded by a desert environment. The average annual rainfall is about 220 mm. The fully-grown trees are mostly poplar, platanus, mulberry, sycamore, Russian olive, elm, ash, linden, acacia, and others are the result of a century of irrigation.
Who Grew These Canals and Trees?
How did Mendoza begin to address the challenges for the wide implementation of green space? The story of greenspace in Mendoza goes back to pre-colonial times when the indigenous people, the Huarpes, dug the original acequias to direct surface water from the Mendoza River (and other rivers) to irrigate agricultural fields.
Located in a semiarid region, Mendoza is fortunate to have a relatively reliable source of surface water from snowmelt in the Andes mountains. When the Spaniards arrived in the 16th century, they destroyed most of the indigenous culture, but not the Acequias, the irrigation canals.
The WaterSecurityNetwork wrote ¨The design of this modern city addressed public health concerns about toxic air, that was thought to cause diseases, by opening streets to air and light. Although nowadays the streets are sometimes completely shaded by the tree canopy cover, back then, the trees were not fully grown, and sunlight filled the streets of Mendoza.
The new urban design also incorporated infrastructure for different modes of transportation and water systems – potable, stormwater, and wastewater. The new city is characterized by the features that we find today in Mendoza including the tree-lined streets, plazas, parks, boulevards, and of course, the Acequias.¨
Huge Parks - Larger than the Central Park
Every now and then, there are winds, known as vientos sonda, that hit the city. These winds are unusually hot and sandy and affect the health of the population. To protect the city from these events, two parks were built – West Park known today as the General San Martín Park; and the East Park, named O’Higgins Park.
The parks and plazas significantly improve the air quality of the city. The San Martin Park was designed by the famous French-Argentinean landscape architect Carlos Thays, who also designed several parks in Buenos Aires. His design of San Martin Park followed the English and French landscape design principles of the 19th century including promenades with sculptures, a rose garden, and marvelous fountains.
Mendoza, a year-round travel destination, receives very little precipitation. Not even snow in winter. However, the high passes nearby, over towards Chile, close often during winter as they get lots of snow in addition to the glaciers. These waters are distributed via a smart ancient irrigating system towards Mendoza.
Until the arrival of the Spaniards, the territory of Mendoza was occupied by the Huarpe Natives. Mendoza was first the living area of the native Huarpes who invented the ancient agricultural irrigating system.
Destroyed by an earthquake in 1861, Mendoza was rebuilt and, during the following century, became the regional metropolis of the province, with important commercial, industrial, financial, and cultural development. The city nowadays has 120.000 inhabitants and much lower living costs than Buenos Aires.
Mendoza is also close to the highest mountain in the western hemisphere at 6.962 meters, it is the center of the famous Argentinean wine growers and a cultural hub which all make it a very attractive place to live and travel to. Mendoza is very much an outdoor city: Very pedestrian friendly and with lots of additional parks besides all these thousands of tree-lined roads.
Read more about Mendoza´s trees:
https://www.picturethisai.com/region/tree/Argentina-Mendoza.html
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