Mirador Park South
In his book, “The City of Ozama: 500 Years of Urban History,” the architect and designer of Mirador Park South, Eugenio Pérez Montás, said that Mirador South Avenue “is the highlight of a remarkable landscape setting initiated in the late seventies.” Twenty years later, it was inaugurated the Cayetano Germosen Avenue, as a complement to its original name.
The architect recalls that collection of Santo Domingo’s large parks, mostly designed in the late 1930’s, began with the outline and construction of the Mirador South complex followed by the Botanic Gardens and the Zoo then finally Mirador Park South in 1978.
Pérez Montás led a large group of professionals who undertook the project. The late and well-known architect Manuel Valverde Podestá was the central figure in charge of landscaping. Quoted in a publication of the time, he confessed his devotion for the project stating that “these completed works have rescued the shoreline along the second geological table of Santo Domingo and have preserved the splendid landscape that overlooks the Caribbean Sea extending to the port of Haina.”
He added that “the minor resources required to carry out the project are miniscule when compared to the social and esthetic importance of the results. Speaking in the lingo of urban dwellers, we can affirm that this is an important step, indeed daring in its magnitude, in the development of the city. Seven kilometers of accessible gardens lined up among rocks forming millenarian caverns and small valleys of red earth.”
The Color of the Tropics in Sun-washed Murals
Among sphinxes and paintings belonging to the most admired Dominican artists, Mirador Park South, located near the Caribbean coast of Santo Domingo, is an inviting starting point for those wanting to get acquainted with an urban sight that captures the glances of all who see it. Art and sports go hand in hand, in a very peculiar manner in the Dominican capital since early 2006. The city council’s idea of creating murals along one of the avenues frequented by lots of walkers and runners has turned the area into a great stage for Dominican art.
The two Avenues that circle the park, Avenue Salud and Cayetano Germosén, are essentially art galleries. Twenty one painters have contributed, with their artwork and creative genius, to this project. Their stunning wall murals have transformed this area of the district capital into a free, open-air museum of great national pride.
In addition, this new cultural scene is an open invitation to get to know a part of the city, as noble as it is beautiful, that lives and breathes color no matter where one looks. Avenue Salud (Health) frequently hosts all manner of athletes, from the teenager on roller blades to the senior citizen out for an evening stroll. The avenue runs along one of the most visited parks in the city. In addition, a large green space leads directly onto the very birth place of the city’s art history where, amid luxurious greenery, stand painstakingly carved statues built in honor the city’s Roman past.
Participating Artists
Those artists who have participated in the beautification of Salud Avenue are Aquiles Azar, Alberto Bass, Angel Haché, Elsa Núñez, Cándido Bidó, Guillo Pérez, José Cestero, José Ramón, Soucy de Pellerano and Tony Capellán.
Those artists who worked on Cayetano Germosén Avenue are Bernardo Then, Carmen de Poll, Cristhian Tiburcio, Ingrid García, Julián Amado, Julio Susana, Marcos LLuberes and Marianela Jiménez. | 
