The gardens of Alderdi Eder, which means "beautiful place" in Basque, are located just in front of the city hall and next to La Concha bay. It is one of the most typical and lovely images of the city. The name dates from 28th May 1879, although at that time people also called it "Erreguesoro", or Field of the King.
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The gardens of Alderdi Eder, which means "beautiful place" in Basque, are located just in front of the city hall and next to La Concha bay. It is one of the most typical and lovely images of the city. The name dates from 28th May 1879, although at that time people also called it "Erreguesoro", or Field of the King.
After the demolition of the walls in 1863, the area was used provisionally for army manoeuvers, until in 1875 this camp was moved to the neighbourhood of El Antiguo, this freed the space up for leisure and entertainment purposes, and a circus, a cycle track and a puppet theatre were set up here.
A few years later, in 1887, a casino was built at the head of the gardens, whose story you can listen to in our audioguide about the city hall... And it was a great casino until its life as a gaming centre ended on 20th January 1947, a date which coincided with the most important city festival, the Tamborrada, 24 hours of drum processions. From that day until the present, the building became the headquarters of the San Sebastian city council, and the whole Alderdi Eder area was renewed.
A second, more thorough renovation began in 1997, although it had to be stopped for a time due to the appearance of various archaeological remains. As soon as these had been recovered, work on the new gardens was finished, including statues, fountains, a pond, an underground car park and a grand carousel able to transport us back in time to the Belle Epoque.
One last detail about these small, feathery trees dotted around: they tend to be referred to as Tamarinds, but they are in fact Tamarisks, a species well-adapted to salt-loaded winds, which has nothing in common with the Tamarind, a large, tropical fruit tree, except the first six letters of its name.
