Cosmovitral
Cosmovitral is a botanical garden in Toluca.
History
In the beginning the cosmovitral was a market in Toluca city. The market was called "Mercado 16 de Septiembre". The construction started on February 22, 1909. And finished in 1920 with the intention of celebrate the Independence Day. The building has an art nouveau style. The design was developed by Manuel Arratia, who was from Zumpango, State of Mexico. The structure of the building was made by “Fundidora y Aceros de Monterrey”.
The building works as market until 1975. The government of the State of Mexico decided to convert the market into a botanical garden. Also they took advantage of the large windows and transform them into stand-glass panes. The cosmovitral was designed by the Mexican artist Leopoldo Flores Valdés. And it was inauguration on July 5, 1980. But in 1990 was finished with the collocation of Vitroplafón.[1]
Description of building
The garden is located on the corner of Juárez and Lerdo de Tejada, downtown Toluca, the capital of the state of Mexico. Open Tuesday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tickets: 10 pesos adults, 5 pesos children. Guided tours, mostly to explain the "Cosmovitral" stained glass, are available. Art exhibits are hosted regularly.
The cosmovitral is conformed of 71 stand-glass panes. These conform 3000 meters of glass. The Cosmovitral is considered one of the biggest botanical gardens in the world. To build the Cosmovitral were needed 75 tons of metallic structure, 45 tons of glass, and 25 tons of lead. Also it is conformed by almost 30,000 pieces of glass. They needed 28 different colors of glass. The glasses were imported from Italy, Germany, France, Canada, Belgium, Japan and the United States.
Leopoldo Flores Valdés, a Mexican artist, is the author of the design of the cosmovitral. It takes almost a year to do the design of the cosmovitral. In the project were 60 artisans involved in it. They created the cosmovitral in 3 years. The surface of the building is of 5000 meters. 3500 meters of the 5000 meters are occupied by different plants. The plants are from Mexico, Africa, Asia, Central America and South America.[1]
Stand-glass panes
The cosmovitral stained glass panes have a meaning. All the stand-glass panes have a theme, but there is no beginning or end. So you can start in any part of the cosmovitral to understand the theme.
Leopoldo Flores tries to interpret the time, the movement, and the contradiction phenomena.
The theme or message of The Cosmovitral is the Man and his relationship with the Universe.
Leopoldo Flores tries to interpret the time, movement, and contradiction phenomena of the matter into a cosmogony vision. He tried to harmonize color, shape and content with the parts matter and spirit. Is the story, evolution and schedule of men is a cosmic cycle. Everything is interconnected thorough a sequence that is developed around the whole building.
The Cosmovitral is not just a collection of pictures with proper and independent theme. The Cosmovitral is a chromatic and figurative sequence. The elements of the Cosmovitral are related without a beginning or end. It is just a design developed around the building. It synthesizes every duality like day and night, life and death, creation and destruction. In the Cosmovitral is resumed the succession of vital cycles, these cycles give essence to the Universe.[1]
Botanical Garden
The japanesse explorer and botanist Eizi Matuda is remembered with a bust and a plate. Both are situated on the middle of the garden. Matuda arrived to Mexico on 1922 and worked for State of Mexico for 28 years. He established the Herbario base of the state. He collected more than 6000 indigenous plants that he discovered, identified and classified.
Details such as the plant's scientific and common names, their taxonomic features -- including division, class, order, family and genre -- a botanical description of the species, their place of origin and observations are provided. Carefully cultivated and tended to, the plants, trees, flowers and shrubs thrive in the greenhouse-like environment.
The more than 400 species of plants in the garden are varieties from Central and South America, as well as Africa and Asia, including Azucenas, roses, Mexican orchids, birds of paradise, as well as cypresses and ferns. Among species that stand out is the African bird of paradise, a gigantic plant native to Brazil and Guyana. Its foliage resembles the banana tree, but this particular specie can reach up to 10 meters high. Also from Brazil, the amaranth is notable for its multi-colored oval leaves fanning out from green, red and purple stems. These attractive plants/trees feature green leaves with yellow veins and purple leaves with red veins.
Another singular plant is the Chinese tulip, a shrub from tropical Asia. The Santiaguito is a good representative of Mexico's floral variety. The rich deep-purple color of its leaves contrasts with its tiny pink flowers that only live for a day. The Araucaria, or Chile pine, is among the tallest trees in the garden. In proper conditions, this specie can reach 60 meters. It is named after the Araucos, an indigenous Chilean population whose diet is mostly based on the fruit of this tree. Information about most of the plants (roughly 70 percent) are found on plaques placed throughout the garden.[2]
References
- ^ a b c "Cosmovitral-Jardín Botánico de Toluca". Open Publishing. Retrieved 2007-11-12.
- ^ "Cosmovitral-Jardín Botánico de Toluca". Open Publishing. Retrieved 2007-11-12.