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An 'urban forest' of trees to battle the air pollution found in most large city centres, pergolas to give shade, a children's play area and geyser-type fountains that people can stand in during the intense heat of high summer are among the ambitious changes to the giant square where Valencia's well-known cathedral and Micalet bell-tower are based.
The aim is to give a clear view of the cathedral from anywhere in the Plaza, make it pedestrian-friendly and to clean up its air.
To help with this, the square will have an underground car park with spaces for 230 cars and 52 motorcycles, a bicycle park, and electric car recharging points.
Councillor for sustainable mobility in Spain's third-largest city, Giuseppe Grezzi, says the car park will cost just under €4.8 million and the Plaza itself, nearly €7m.
Work is due to start as soon as possible, although as yet there is no fixed timescale – the contract and conditions have to be drawn up and the job put out to tender first.
Once construction begins, the square and car park will take around a year to complete.
Rubbish and recycling bins will be mostly underground, so as to avoid flies and bad smells in the heat of summer during the daytime in between nightly collections.
A garden area with nearly 1,000 square metres of trees and plants will also engulf the entrance to and exit from the car park, to absorb emissions from vehicles.
Grezzi says 30 different species of trees and 115 'aromatic plants', of local and regional types where possible, will be set up in 37 medium-sized and 23 large planters.
Benches will be installed for visitors, residents and tourists to take a rest in between sightseeing, and four bicycle parks – in addition to collection and drop-off point for the on-street bike-hire scheme, Valenbisi – will be erected.
Two public toilets – a feature not often seen in Spain, meaning most members of the public use cafés or bars and feel obliged to buy a drink to do so – will, hopefully, start a new trend nationwide.
A drinking fountain will be included, since tap water in most of the country is perfectly safe to drink and a free source of it will cut down on plastic pollution from discarded bottles.
Kiosks, resident and tourist information points, a taxi rank on the C/ La Mar and 12 spaces for loading and unloading mean the design will be practical as well as attractive.
Trees and other features will be aligned so as to give a full view of its intricate architecture.
Residents and visitors have welcomed the news that the Plaza will have anti-slip paving stones – its current marble slabs, in parts, can be treacherous underfoot when it rains heavily and, aside from wanting to keep its 750,000 inhabitants and hundreds of thousands of annual visitors safe, the council wants to protect itself from injury claims.
Once the Plaza is completed, it is likely some of the main festival-type activities will be moved there and existing ones expanded – such as the Christmas market and the 'Tío Pep' falla monument during the city's massive, noisy and colourful March fiestas.
As for the car park, Grezzi says it will include six disabled spaces and 224 'mainstream' bays, and it will be managed by the council.
Whether this will be directly or through the public-sector Municipal Transport Company (EMT) is something Grezzi says his department will 'have to look into in detail'.
“Once the work is finished, we'll take the necessary steps to work out which format for managing the car park is most suitable,” he told reporters during a recent press conference on the planned revamp.
“The EMT has built up a great deal of experience in running infrastructure of this type, and is showing very good results.”
Photographs show a digital mock-up of the new square, created by Valencia city council
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